In danger, the monastic buildings of Kiev and the center of Lviv. "Threatened with destruction" due to the Russian invasion, these sites were included on Friday 15 September in UNESCO's list of World Heritage in Danger, on the occasion of the 45th session of the World Heritage Committee in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia). An inscription that has once again escaped the city of Venice, threatened by global warming and overtourism.
Today, this list includes 56 sites, from the minaret and archaeological remains of Jam, Afghanistan, to the historic city of Zabid, Yemen.
Weakened by armed conflicts and war, earthquakes and other natural disasters, but also pollution, poaching, uncontrolled urbanization or the uncontrolled development of tourism, these places are the subject of special attention.
Their inscription on the List of World Heritage in Danger allows the World Heritage Committee, which meets annually, to immediately grant assistance to threatened properties within the framework of the World Heritage Fund.
đź”´BREAKING!
Just inscribed on the List of #WorldHeritage in Danger: Kyiv: Saint-Sophia Cathedral and Related Monastic Buildings, Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, #Ukraine 🇺🇦 .https://t.co/69Xvi4BtYv #45WHC pic.twitter.com/cCsziO0Y1K
— UNESCO 🏛️ #Education #Sciences #Culture 🇺🇳 (@UNESCO) September 15, 2023
War and global warming, criteria for "endangerment"
In the case of Ukrainian sites, the 21 representatives of States composing the World Heritage Committee considered the inclusion necessary. The Hagia Sophia Cathedral and associated monastic buildings, the Kiev Caves Lavra, an important Orthodox monastery, as well as the entire historic centre of the city of Lviv thus enter the List of World Heritage in Danger.
"The optimal conditions are no longer in place to fully guarantee the protection of the Outstanding Universal Value of the property, which is threatened by a potential danger due to war," says UNESCO, based in Paris. "Faced with the risk of direct attack, these sites are also vulnerable to shock waves caused by the bombing of the two cities," the organization's statement said.
According to the 1972 Convention, a World Heritage property may be inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger if the Committee considers that its situation corresponds to at least one of the criteria described in the "Operational Guidelines", a document to guide the implementation of the World Heritage Convention.
Sites in danger, natural or cultural, may thus be in a situation of "proven danger", when it comes to specific and established imminent threats, or in a situation of "endangerment", when they are confronted with threats that could have adverse effects on their World Heritage value.
The second group of chaplains to be officially included in the Ukrainian Armed Forces, during a graduation ceremony at St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev, Ukraine, June 23, 2023. © Andrew Kravchenko, AP
Cultural properties, the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev, the Kiev Caves Lavra, and the historic centre of Lviv – as well as the historic centre of Odessa, since last January – have been included in the list as a situation of "endangerment" due to "serious threats that could have harmful effects on its essential characteristics". These threats correspond to the UNESCO criterion relating to "armed conflicts that have just broken out or are threatening to break out".
In Ukraine, at least 248 sites have been damaged or destroyed by the war, according to a UNESCO statement, which says that the damage caused in the cultural sector has already cost 2.4 billion euros.
02:42
"To rebuild but also to redress the situation, it will be necessary to invest 6.9 billion dollars in the cultural sector in Ukraine over the next ten years," warned last April, the Director-General of UNESCO Audrey Azoulay, on the sidelines of a working meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Following the inscription of Odessa, the UN agency aimed to strengthen its local actions, particularly to preserve and digitize the works, as well as to continue the protection of heritage buildings exposed to the risk of bombing.
Several buildings in central Odessa were hit last July, including the Transfiguration Cathedral, which was heavily damaged by Russian shelling.
"From the earliest days of the war, UNESCO has stood with the Ukrainian people to help protect the culture, heritage, education and safety of journalists. These are the pillars of our humanity, our identities, the pillars of the country's recovery and peace," Audrey Azoulay said in April, in front of the Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev, considered by UNESCO as "one of the main monuments representing the architecture and monumental art of the early 11th century" in Ukraine.
Symbol of the "new Constantinople", capital of the Christian principality created in the 11th century, the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, contributed to the spread of Orthodox faith and thought on the European continent in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.
" READ ALSO The evacuation of icons from Kiev to the Louvre, act of resistance of Ukrainian culture
Nearly $7 billion will be required over the next decade to rebuild the cultural sector in war-ravaged #Ukraine, @UNESCO says.
Meanwhile, damage to energy infrastructure exceeds $10 billion, @UNDP and @WorldBank report.https://t.co/qkLVoYZmMV
— UN News (@UN_News_Centre) April 6, 2023
For natural sites in a situation of "proven danger", their inscription on the list may for example be justified by "a serious alteration of the natural beauty or scientific interest of the property, resulting, for example, from human settlement", or "a serious decline in the population of endangered species for the protection of which the property concerned has been legally established".
A situation of "endangerment" will be retained if the site is confronted with "serious threats that could have harmful effects on its essential characteristics". These threats include changes in the legal status that protected it, armed conflict and "threatening impacts of climatic, geological or other environmental factors".
Last July, UNESCO experts recommended the inscription of Venice on the list of World Heritage in Danger, considering that the Italian authorities must intensify their efforts to secure the "City of the Doges" and the lagoon that surrounds it.
According to the United Nations cultural agency, the Serenissima risks "irreversible" damage due to a number of problems, in particular climate change and mass tourism, two scourges regularly raised in these discussions.
See alsoFOCUS - How to save Venice from the waters?
Visitors and tourists flock to the Grand Canal during the Venice Carnival, February 11, 2023. © Miguel Medina, AFP
Pushing States to act
"The further development [of Venice], the impacts of climate change and mass tourism threaten to cause irreversible changes to the Outstanding Universal Value of the property," noted the World Heritage Centre, a branch of UNESCO. Examples cited by the agency include rising sea levels and other "extreme weather events."
As was already the case two years earlier, the "City of the Doges" narrowly escaped.
While the World Heritage Committee noted that the site still faces major challenges and requested Italy to continue to protect the site, it has decided not to inscribe it on its List of Sites in Danger. "This decision takes into account the progress achieved in recent days by UNESCO, including the establishment from 2024 of a visitor flow management system," a diplomat told AFP.
While the project had been on hold for months, Venice finally decided to set up from 2024 a tax of five euros that tourists going to the city for the day will have to pay. A measure aimed at dissuading some of the visitors who, every day, saturate the city and its canals.
But Venice is not out of the woods. "The Committee reiterated its concerns about the significant challenges that remain for the proper conservation of the site, particularly related to mass tourism, development projects and climate change. It believes that further progress needs to be made."
An advisory mission of the World Heritage Centre will also have to be invited by Italy, which is required to "submit a report by 1 February 2024, for the state of conservation of the site to be re-examined at the 46th session of the Committee in summer 2024".
Last chance, or dishonor
As stated by UNESCO, the inscription of a site on the List of World Heritage in Danger "allows the Committee to immediately grant assistance to the threatened property within the framework of the World Heritage Fund".
Following this, every effort must be made to restore the values of the site, and thus allow, as soon as possible, its removal from the list.
A list that is not perceived in the same way by all parties concerned. Indeed, while some countries themselves request the inscription of a site to attract international attention and obtain competent assistance to solve them, others, on the other hand, wish to avoid such an inscription which they perceive as an infamy, a dishonor.
On 15th September, while UNESCO had just announced that Venice escaped the classification, the Italian Minister of Culture Gennaro Sangiulano hastened to welcome "a victory for Italy and common sense".
#Venezia non entra nei siti a rischio dell'Unesco, un grande gioco di squadra con @LuigiBrugnaro e @RSperanzon ha evitato questa ingiustizia.
Sconfitti coloro che per polemica politica vanno contro la loro Patria. pic.twitter.com/y9ODw9TBJj
— Gennaro Sangiuliano (@g_sangiuliano) September 15, 2023
A response, in particular, to the environmental NGO Italia Nostra, whose president of the Venetian section had welcomed the report of UNESCO experts in favor of the classification of Venice on the list of heritage in danger. "Finally!" she reacted, hoping that such an inscription would force the Italian government to act radically.
"The designation of a site as World Heritage in Danger should not be considered as a sanction," the UN agency said, adding that it is more of a "system established to respond effectively to specific conservation needs".
Indeed, if a site loses the characteristics that led to its inscription on the World Heritage List, and the State to which it belongs fails in its duties of protection and preservation, the Committee may decide to remove it from the UNESCO World Heritage List. A decision that, this time unequivocally, undermines the prestige of the site.
The summary of the weekFrance 24 invites you to look back on the news that marked the week
I subscribe
Take international news with you everywhere! Download the France 24 app