|
U.S. Tentative List/Nomination to World Heritage List
What are World Heritage sites?
World Heritage Sites are the most outstanding examples of the world’s cultural and natural heritage. Countries apply to have a site inscribed on the World Heritage List. An international World Heritage Committee approves or rejects the proposals, advised by international councils of experts. UNESCO administers the overall program, monitoring the sites, but does not manage them. As a signatory to the World Heritage Convention, the United States participates in the deliberations that lead to cultural, natural, and mixed properties being inscribed on the World Heritage List. The convention recognizes and encourages protection of sites around the world with "universal" cultural or natural heritage value.
Why is it important that sites be listed?
A listing elevates local and international awareness about the site's value, further encourages communities to protect and invest in their preservation, and increases potentially beneficial tourism to the site. In any country, foreign visitors customarily put more money into the local economy than domestic tourists. (Tourism, however, should be managed so as to protect and maintain the site.)
How many World Heritage Sites are there?
Currently, there are 851 World Heritage Sites in 141 countries. Cultural sites number 660 and natural areas 166. There are 25 mixed sites that were nominated for both nature and culture. In the United States, there are 20 World Heritage Sites, 8 of which are cultural and 12 natural.
Who manages the World Heritage List?
The World Heritage List as is managed by a World Heritage Committee made up of representatives from signatory countries, supported by a secretariat, known as the World Heritage Centre, which is based in the headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris.
Who manages the program in the United States?
The Department of the Interior, through the National Park Service, conducts the U.S. World Heritage Program, including selecting and submitting nominations to the World Heritage List.
Is being added to the United States’ Tentative list the same as being added to the World Heritage List?
No. Being on the tentative list only means that a site appears to meet the criteria for inclusion on the List of World Heritage and that the United States intends to nominate it– it does not guarantee that a site will eventually be listed. The World Heritage Committee makes the final decisions on which sites are designated as World Heritage Sites.
What is a tentative list?
The World Heritage Committee has asked each participating nation in the
World Heritage process provide a tentative list by evaluating properties to be considered for the World Heritage List. A tentative list is an annotated list of natural and cultural properties which meet the World Heritage eligibility criteria for nomination that a country intends to nominate within a given time period. In order to be nominated to the World Heritage List, a property must already have been included on a country’s tentative list.
The U.S. tentative list will serve as the source for a decade (2009-2019) of nominations to the World Heritage List. The tentative list will be structured to meet the World Heritage Committee’s request that allows for no more than two nominations per year by any one nation, at least one of which must be a nomination of a natural area. The World Heritage Committee recommends that a nation review its tentative list at least once every 10 years.
The new U.S. tentative list, which was announced in January 2008, is a relatively short list of 14 nominations that have been proposed for consideration by their owners and that have been carefully examined for their potential to meet the legal requirements for nomination by the United States as well as the World Heritage criteria. The number of individual sites included in the new tentative list is significantly larger than 14 because nominations may include multiple sites grouped together as a single nomination.
Will inclusion on the tentative list affect the legal status of the property?
Inclusion in the tentative list will not affect the legal status of a property in any way. Even if the property is eventually inscribed in the World Heritage List, only U.S. laws and regulations will apply to it. All that UNESCO can do is file comments on nominations. World Heritage Committee members can list a site as "in danger," but even then, the country usually has to agree. The Committee may even de-list a site, but has never done so.
What are the World Heritage Committee’s criteria?
- Represent a masterpiece of human creative genius
- Exhibit an important interchange of human values, over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world, on developments in architecture or technology, monumental arts, town planning, or landscape design.
- Bear a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization which is living or which has disappeared.
- Be an outstanding example of a type of building, architectural or technological ensemble or landscape which illustrates (a) significant stage(s) in human history.
- Be an outstanding example of a traditional human settlement, land-use, or sea-use which is representative of a culture (or cultures), or human interaction with the environment especially when it has become vulnerable under the impact of irreversible change.
- Be directly or tangibly associated with events or living traditions, with ideas, or with beliefs, with artistic and literary works of outstanding universal significance.
- Contain superlative natural phenomena or areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance.
- Be outstanding examples representing major stages of earth’s history, including the record of life, significant on-going geological processes in the development of landforms, or significant geomorphic or physiographic features.
- Be outstanding examples representing significant on-going ecological and biological processes in the evolution and development of terrestrial, fresh water, coastal, and marine ecosystems and communities of plants and animals.
- Contain the most important and significant natural habits for in-situ conservation of biological diversity, including those containing threatened species of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science or conservation.
Are there additional criteria for properties in the United States?
In addition to satisfying one or more of the World Heritage Committee’s criteria, U.S. law requires that all three of the following requirements be met:
- Each property must previously have been determined to be nationally significant for its cultural values, natural values, or both (i.e., formally designated as a National Historic Landmark, a National Natural Landmark, or as a Federal reserve of national importance, such as a National Park, National Monument, or Wildlife Refuge).
- All of the property’s owners must concur in the proposal.
- It must appear likely that the owners and the Department of the Interior will be able to agree on and present full evidence of legal protection for the property at the time of final nomination.
Only properties appearing to meet one or more of the World Heritage criteria and the three specific U.S. legal prerequisites can be considered for inclusion on the revised U.S. Tentative List.
Who can nominate a site?
Federal department and bureau heads in charge of federally designated sites (such as national parks, historic landmarks, wildlife refuges, etc.) can nominate sites, as can site administrators and other property owners. In Ohio, the Ohio Historical Society, Sun Watch Indian Village Archaeological Park, and Hopewell Culture National Historical Park worked together to prepare the nominations of significant archaeological sites. Dayton Aviation National Historical Park and its partners prepared a nomination of sites associated with the development of flight.
What sites in Ohio were nominated?
Serpent Mound in Adams County was nominated as an effigy mound. Fort Ancient in Warren County, Newark Earthworks in Licking County, and the five sites that comprise Hopewell Culture National Historical Park in Ross County were grouped for nomination as Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks. Dayton Aviation National Historical Park submitted an aviation theme nomination.
Are the Underground Railroad sites in Ripley being considered?
No, the proposed nomination of the Underground Railroad Sites of the Rankin and Parker houses in Ripley was not included on the tentative list that was announced in January 2008.
Once on the tentative list, what is the process for being added to the World Heritage List?
According to the World Heritage Operational Guidelines, countries are requested to wait for one year after submitting their tentative list before sending forward any nomination for a site on the tentative list. It is anticipated that the first U. S. World Heritage nomination of a site included on the new tentative list will be submitted on February 1, 2009 for consideration by the World Heritage Committee at its annual session in 2010. During the period between submission of the nomination by the US and the Committee’s review of it, the nomination will be evaluated by the appropriate advisory body—the World Conservation Union (IUCN) for natural sites, and the International Council for Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) for cultural sites. The advisory bodies make formal site visits and consult with experts before giving their recommendation to the committee as to whether a nominated site meets the eligibility criteria.
|
