Removal of Liverpool from World Heritage List

In News

UNESCO removes Liverpool from the world heritage list. A World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by UNESCO for its special cultural or physical significance.

About

• Liverpool has been stripped of its World Heritage status after a UN committee found developments threatened the value of the city’s waterfront.
• The developments, including the planned new Everton FC stadium, had resulted in a “serious deterioration” of the historic site.
• Only two sites have been dropped from the list previously, which include a wildlife sanctuary in Oman in 2007 after poaching and habitat loss and the Dresden Elbe valley in Germany in 2009 after a four-lane bridge was built over the river.
• Recently, Australia’s own listing for the Great Barrier Reef is threatened in this year’s UNESCO deliberations.

History

• Liverpool is a city on the banks of the River Mersey in England. 
• In 2008 it was the European Capital of Culture.
• Liverpool was added to the World Heritage List in 2004 in recognition of its role as one of the world’s major trading centres in the 18th and 19th centuries – and its pioneering dock technology, transport systems and port management. 
• Liverpool’s Maritime Mercantile City becomes only the third site to lose its World Heritage status since the list began in 1978
• The other two being:
  • Oman’s Arabian Oryx Sanctuary in 2007 
  • Dresden Elbe Valley in Germany in 2009.

Image Courtesy : Semanticscholar

World Heritage

• The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) seeks to encourage the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity. 
• This is embodied in an international treaty called the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, adopted by UNESCO in 1972.
• The UN body began compiling its list of World Heritage sites in 1972, naming 12 initially.
  • These included Yellowstone National Park in the United States and Ethiopia’s cave churches at Lalibela.

• Today there are more than 1,100 listed sites in 167 Member States from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.
• The list is maintained by the international World Heritage Programme administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, composed of 21 UNESCO member states which are elected by the General Assembly.
• Recent additions include: 
  • Te Wahipounamu park in South West New Zealand, 
    • It is home to the kea, the only alpine parrot in the world, 
    • Also home to the rare and endangered takahe, a large flightless bird.
• UNESCO’s World Heritage mission is to:
  • Encourage countries to sign the World Heritage Convention and to ensure the protection of their natural and cultural heritage;
  • Encourage States Parties to the Convention to nominate sites within their national territory for inclusion on the World Heritage List;
  • Encourage States Parties to establish management plans and set up reporting systems on the state of conservation of their World Heritage sites;
  • Help States Parties safeguard World Heritage properties by providing technical assistance and professional training;
  • Provide emergency assistance for World Heritage sites in immediate danger;
  • Support States Parties’ public awareness-building activities for World Heritage conservation;
  • Encourage participation of the local population in the preservation of their cultural and natural heritage;
  • Encourage international cooperation in the conservation of our world’s cultural and natural heritage.

Sources: TOI