A World Of Wonders

UNESCO’s World Heritage list aims to protect and promote outstanding natural and cultural sites.

- Karin Leperi

THE CULTURAL AND NATURAL DIVERSITY around the world is breathtaking; however, in the past it was up to each country to protect that heritage. For decades, UNESCO — the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization — bestowed locations with the World Heritage Site designation, requiring the protection of properties with “outstanding universal value” in order to be listed. To quote directly: “To be deemed of Outstanding Universal Value, a property must also meet the conditions of integrity and/or authenticity and must have an adequate protection and management system to ensure its safeguarding.” By doing so, all countries of the world took a big step forward in promoting a world consciousness of the innate value of country heritages — both cultural and natural.

UNESCO inscribed the first World Heritage sites in 1978, with 12 making the list. The United States contributed two of the 12 that year: Yellowstone National Park, the most seismically active area of the Rocky Mountains with more than 200 features like geysers, hot springs, mud pots and fumaroles; and Mesa Verde, an architectural tribute to the lost Anasazi (Ancestral Pueblans) civilization. The Galápagos Islands, famous for the sheer number of unique and endemic species, also made the list, as did two sites from Canada: Nahanni National Park in the Northwest Territories for its river, cave and canyon landscape; and L’Anse aux Meadows, a national historic site in Labrador marking the earliest European presence in North America.

TODAY THE UNESCO WORLD