World Heritage Sites may lose their designation when the UNESCO World Heritage Committee determines that they are not properly managed or protected. The committee can place a site it is concerned about on its list of World Heritage in Danger of losing its designation, and attempts to negotiate with the local authorities to remedy the situation. If remediation fails, the committee then revokes its designation.
A country may also request to reduce the boundaries of one of its existing sites, in effect partially or fully delisting such properties. Under the World Heritage guidelines, a country must report to the committee whenever one of its properties "inscribed on the World Heritage List has seriously deteriorated, or when the necessary corrective measures have not been taken." [1]
Three sites have been completely delisted from the World Heritage List: the Arabian Oryx Sanctuary in Oman, the Dresden Elbe Valley in Germany and Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City in the United Kingdom. [2] [3]
In 2007, Oman's Arabian Oryx Sanctuary was the first site to be removed from UNESCO's World Heritage List. [4] The sanctuary had become a World Heritage Site in 1994. Poaching and habitat degradation had nearly wiped out the oryx population. The delisting was done in reaction to the government's decision to reduce the size of the sanctuary by 90 per cent after oil had been found at the site. [5] Only four breeding pairs of oryx were counted at the time of the removal of the designation. [6]
On 25 June 2009, the committee of UNESCO voted to remove the status of World Heritage Site of the Dresden Elbe Valley in Germany on the basis that the Waldschlösschen Bridge that was under construction since 2007 would bisect the valley. [7] The 20 km-long (12 mi) site had been selected as a World Heritage Site in 2004. The delisting was preceded by a long and protracted struggle between local Dresden authorities in favour of the bridge and their opponents. The bridge was proposed to remedy inner-city traffic congestion. [8] A referendum had been conducted in 2005 about building the bridge without informing the voters that the UNESCO designation was at stake. [9] In 2006 the site was placed on the endangered list until 2008, at which time a one-year extension was granted. When the construction of the bridge continued, a second extension was declined and at its 2009 meeting in Seville the committee voted 14 to 5 to delist the site. This was the second delisting of a World Heritage Site. [10] [11] While a majority of local residents polled indicated that Dresden's UNESCO title was unnecessary, the delisting removed funding to support the site and has been termed an "embarrassment". [10] The Waldschlösschen Bridge was officially opened on 24 August 2013. [12]
On 21 July 2021, the Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City in Liverpool in the United Kingdom became the third site to be removed from UNESCO's World Heritage List. [2] [3] It had become a World Heritage Site in 2004, consisting of six locations in the city centre, for being "the supreme example of a commercial port at a time of Britain's greatest global influence". [13] In 2012, the World Heritage Committee voted to add the site to the endangered list on the basis that the proposed Liverpool Waters redevelopment project would result in a "serious loss of historic authenticity". [14] [15]
The committee later issued a warning in 2017 that the site risked being delisted in light of the development proposals, with English Heritage asserting that the proposed Liverpool Waters development would leave the setting of some of Liverpool's most significant historic buildings "severely compromised", the archaeological remains of parts of the historic docks "at risk of destruction", and "the city's historic urban landscape [...] permanently unbalanced". [16]
In March 2021, Liverpool City Council's planning committee granted approval for the construction of the £500m Everton Stadium, [17] and the World Heritage Committee voted 13 to 5, with 2 abstentions, to delist the site in July because of the "irreversible loss of attributes". [2] [3] However, the reaction from a small sample of Liverpudlians was mixed, some positing that the site's placing on the World Heritage List made it impossible to develop its more derelict areas and forced the city to keep aesthetically attractive but presently uneconomically viable buildings [18] while others doubted tourist numbers would change as a consequence. [19]
UNESCO removed Bagrati Cathedral in Georgia from its World Heritage Sites in 2017, considering its major reconstruction detrimental to its integrity and authenticity. Both it and Gelati Monastery were inscribed as a joint World Heritage Site in 1994, then added to the endangered list in 2010. The World Heritage Committee voted in 2017 to retain Gelati Monastery on the list but exclude Bagrati Cathedral. [20]
World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection by an international convention administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity".
Loschwitz Bridge is a cantilever truss bridge over the river Elbe in Dresden the capital of Saxony in Germany. It connects the city districts of Blasewitz and Loschwitz, two affluent residential areas, which around 1900 were amongst the most expensive in Europe. It is located close to Standseilbahn Dresden funicular railway and the world's oldest suspension railway Schwebebahn Dresden, as well as near the Dresden TV tower. The bridge is colloquially referred to as Blaues Wunder. This common name purportedly referred to the bridge's original blue colour and being seen as a technological miracle at the time; it is also understood to carry the cynical connotation referencing the German idiom ein blaues Wunder erleben meaning "to experience an unpleasant surprise", reflecting the skeptical view of contemporary commentators. There is also a bridge in Wolgast known as Blaues Wunder.
The Arabian oryx or white oryx is a medium-sized antelope with a distinct shoulder bump, long, straight horns, and a tufted tail. It is a bovid, and the smallest member of the genus Oryx, native to desert and steppe areas of the Arabian Peninsula. The Arabian oryx was extinct in the wild by the early 1970s, but was saved in zoos and private reserves, and was reintroduced into the wild starting in 1980.
The Wildlife Reserve in Al Wusta, formerly the Arabian Oryx Sanctuary, is a nature reserve in the Omani Central Desert and Coastal Hills. It was included in the UNESCO World Heritage list, but became the first site to be removed from the World Heritage list in 2007.
As of July 2024, there are a total of 1,223 World Heritage Sites located across 168 countries, of which 952 are cultural, 231 are natural, and 40 are mixed properties. The countries have been divided by the World Heritage Committee into five geographical regions: Africa, the Arab States, Asia and the Pacific, Europe and North America, and Latin America and the Caribbean. With 60 selected areas, Italy is the country with the most sites, followed by China with 59, and Germany with 54.
The Dresden Elbe Valley is a cultural landscape and former World Heritage Site stretching along the Elbe river in Dresden, the state capital of Saxony, Germany. The valley, extending for some 20 kilometres (12 mi) and passing through the Dresden Basin, is one of two major cultural landscapes built up over the centuries along the Central European river Elbe, along with the Dessau-Wörlitz Garden Realm downstream.
The Cathedral of the Dormition, or the Kutaisi Cathedral, more commonly known as Bagrati Cathedral, is an 11th-century cathedral in the city of Kutaisi, in the Imereti region of Georgia. A masterpiece of medieval Georgian architecture, the cathedral suffered heavy damage throughout centuries and was reconstructed to its present state through a gradual process starting in the 1950s, with controversial conservation works concluding in 2012. These works prompted UNESCO to include the cathedral on its list of endangered World Heritage Sites, and then to remove the church from the World Heritage list.
The City Council of Dresden is the elected representative body of the citizens of Dresden that administers the affairs of Dresden a self-governing city kreisfreie Stadt in the Free State of Saxony.
The Waldschlösschen Bridge is a road bridge across the Elbe river in Dresden. The bridge was intended to remedy inner-city traffic congestion. Its construction was highly controversial, as the Dresden Elbe Valley had been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site and UNESCO expressed strong concerns against the bridge, noting its intent to withdraw the World Heritage title if the bridge were built. As a result of this project, the Dresden Elbe Valley was listed in 2006 as an "Endangered World Heritage Site", and in 2009 became only the second World Heritage Site to be de-listed.
Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City is a former UNESCO designated World Heritage Site in Liverpool, England, that comprised six locations in the city centre including the Pier Head, Albert Dock and William Brown Street, and many of the city's most famous landmarks.
The Arabian oryx, also called the white oryx, was extinct in the wild as of 1972, but was reintroduced to the wild starting in 1982. Initial reintroduction was primarily from two herds: the "World Herd" originally started at the Phoenix Zoo in 1963 from only nine oryx and the Saudi Arabian herd started in 1986 from private collections and some "World Herd" stock by the Saudi National Wildlife Research Center (NWRC). As of 2009 there have been reintroductions in Oman, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Jordan, and as of 2013 the IUCN Red List classifies the species as vulnerable.
Biosphere reserves are areas comprising terrestrial, marine and coastal ecosystems. The biosphere reserve title is handed over by UNESCO. Each reserve promotes solutions reconciling the conservation of biodiversity with its sustainable use. Biosphere reserves are 'Science for Sustainability support sites' – special places for testing interdisciplinary approaches to understanding and managing changes and interactions between social and ecological systems, including conflict prevention and management of biodiversity. Biosphere reserves are nominated by national governments and remain under the sovereign jurisdiction of the states where they are located. Their status is internationally recognized.
Section IV.C.193
Dresden is only the second property ever to have been removed from the World Heritage List. The Oman's Arabian Oryx Sanctuary was delisted in 2007.