The Great Eight

These places could become the next Canadian UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

- Fateema Sayani

CONSIDER IT A GREAT example of crowdsourcing. Two years ago, Parks Canada invited Canadians to submit their nominations for places they deemed worthy of UNESCO World Heritage Site recognition. In the end, eight cultural, ecological and geological treasures were chosen from across the country.

The announcement, made in late 2017, marked the first time Canada’s Tentative List for World Heritage Sites had been updated since 2004, when five sites were added to the list. Sites are given the designation by the World Heritage Committee, which gathers annually. The next meeting is set for June 2019 in Baku, Azerbaijan.

List development is an ongoing process. Countries are encouraged to update their tentative list of sites, which must be of “outstanding universal value,” once every decade. They should be inspiring, rare, impressive, and reflect natural and/or cultural heritage. For example, the Pyramids of Egypt and Australia’s Great Barrier Reef are both World Heritage Sites, as is Ottawa’s Rideau Canal, along with 18 other Canadian locations.

The designation brings the world’s attention and tourists, but also promotes pride of place and safeguarding of the sites.

Here are the eight new Canadian contenders hoping for the official nod.

Hecate Strait and Queen Charlotte Sound Glass Sponge Reefs, British Columbia

SIGNIFICANCE The reefs comprise colonies of glass sponges estimated to be 9,000 years old and are considered the largest living example of glass sponge reefs that were abundant in the Jurassic Period. The structure of the reefs — sponges growing on top of sponges for thousands of years — is not found anywhere else in the world.

SIZE 1,000 square kilometres and up to 240 metres deep. The sponges themselves are up to 25 metres tall.