It’s official. The World Heritage Committee meeting in Seville, Spain, from June 22 to June 30, has decided that the Belize Barrier Reef System, inscribed 13 years ago as a World Heritage Site, must be added to the list of World Heritage in Danger.
“Clearly it is a wakeup call to take better care of the World Heritage Site,” said Belize Prime Minister Dean Barrow in an interview with Amandala today.
The decision follows a recommendation made by a joint mission undertaken in March by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) and IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature).
“The main problem with [the] Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System concerns mangrove cutting and excessive development in the property which was inscribed in 1996 as the largest barrier reef in the northern hemisphere, with offshore atolls, several hundred sand cays, mangrove forests, coastal lagoons and estuaries,” said a release issued by the World Heritage Center on Saturday. “While requesting stricter control of development on the site, the Committee also requested that the moratorium on mangrove cutting on the site which expired in 2008 be reinstated.”
Recently back from a UN meeting on the world financial and economic crisis, Prime Minister Barrow said that he had today reviewed a letter from APAMO (Association of Protected Areas Management Organizations) in Belize, calling for the Government to effect a moratorium on issuing lands in the World Heritage Site, and furthermore to cancel existing leases and grants.
As for the moratorium, Barrow said, “That ship has already sailed.”
He told our newspaper that since 2008, his government had taken a decision not to issue any lands in the site. He added that Government would consider proposals to reverse leases and titles issued by the former administration; however, “that’s easier said than done,” he added.
“I am not discounting the possibility of canceling [leases and titles] or compulsory acquisitions, but we will have to follow the law,” PM Barrow said, adding that his administration had not parceled any lands in the Belize Barrier Reef System.
Dr. Melanie McField, coordinator of Healthy Reefs for Healthy People Initiative in Belize, informed our newspaper that conservationists are planning for a high-level reef summit later this year at which they would talk about this burning issue, and they also hope to look at what Government and other stakeholders can do to address the state of the Belize Barrier Reef System.
Erika Harms, Executive Director of Sustainable Development for the UN Foundation (which said that Belize’s inclusion on the danger list was because of unsustainable tourism activities), noted that, “The inscription of the Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System to the ‘List of World Heritage in Danger’ will not discourage tourism altogether, but rather will highlight the unique natural value of the site and support the government in its efforts to create a framework to preserve the site, support sustainable tourism in and around the site, and empower local communities to improve their livelihoods.”
Even though the WHC removed Baku, capital of Azerbaijan, South of Russia, from the danger list, after notable improvements in the preservation of the ancient city, the Committee added two more: Colombia’s Los Katios National Park and the Historical Monuments of Mtskheta in the Asian country of Georgia.
With the addition of the Belize, Columbia and Georgia sites to the danger list and the ascension of Baku to the list of sites in good standing, the sites listed as World Heritage in Danger have increased from 28 to 30.
Meanwhile, the total number of properties on the list of World Heritage Sites is now 890, after 13 new sites were added:
The Wadden Sea (Germany / The Netherlands); The Dolomites (Italy); Stoclet House (Belgium); The Ruins of Loropéni (Burkina Faso); Cidade Velha, Historic Centre of Ribeira Grande (Cape Verde); Mount Wutai (China); Shushtar, Historical Hydraulic System (Iran); Sulamain-Too Sacred Mountain (Kyrgyzstan); The Sacred City of Caral-Supe (Peru); The Royal Tombs of the Joseon Dynasty (Republic of Korea); The Tower of Hercules (Spain); La Chaux-de-Fonds / Le Locle watchmaking town-planning (Switzerland); and Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal (United Kingdom).
Dresden Elbe Valley (Germany) was completely dropped from the list on Thursday. WHC said the removal was “due to the construction underway of a four-lane bridge in the heart of the cultural landscape.” It is the second site in history to be dropped from the list, according to WHC.
UNESCO information indicates that there are 186 countries that have ratified the World Heritage Convention. There are 148 state parties with listed sites: 689 cultural, 176 natural and 25 mixed. Half the sites are located in Europe and North America.
The UN Foundation notes that the Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System, second in size only to Australia’s, comprises 370 square miles, with 450 cayes and 3 atolls, boasting 500 different species of fish and 65 species of coral.