Heritage is our legacy from the past, what we live with today, and what we pass on to future generations.

What makes the concept of World Heritage exceptional is its universal application. World Heritage sites belong to all the peoples of the world, irrespective of the territory in which they are located.

World Heritage Listing Process

Only the national governments of States Parties to the World Heritage Convention can nominate properties within their territory for inscription on the World Heritage List. The national governments do not decide, however, if the nominated property is inscribed on the World Heritage List. This is the key role of the World Heritage Committee as part of a process involving extensive international appraisal and consideration.

Nominations have to be received by the World Heritage Committee Secretariat at the headquarters of UNESCO in Paris by 30 June each year.

The assessment process for each nomination (nominating process) culminates in a decision on listing being taken by the World Heritage Committee meeting at the end of the following year. The World Heritage Committee, in its early years, generated a set of rules of procedures and operational guidelines to provide a firm basis for the assessment process and to ensure that it acted in an objective and professional manner. These operational guidelines are updated periodically.

When nominations are received by the World Heritage Committee Secretariat they are referred to the World Heritage Bureau for assessment. The Bureau is assisted in this task by international non-government organisations that are asked to provide impartial professional evaluations of each nomination. The International Council for Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) are the advisory bodies for cultural properties, while the World Conservation Union (IUCN) advises on natural properties. In addition, these organisations consult with relevant scientific and technical experts from around the world.

The evaluations undertaken by these advisory bodies are considered by the World Heritage Bureau. The Bureau recommends to the World Heritage Committee whether a nomination should be accepted or it can seek further information from either the non-government organisations or the nominating country.

The World Heritage Committee, at its annual meeting, considers the Bureau's recommendations and evaluations from the non-government organisations and makes a decision on the inscription of the property.

World Heritage nomination and listing processes are rigorous, and many nominations have been withdrawn or rejected because they fail the assessment process.

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Cultural Criteria

Article 1 of the World Heritage Convention defines cultural heritage as:

Monuments:

Architectural works, works of monumental sculpture and painting, elements or structures of an archaeological nature, inscriptions, cave dwellings and combinations of features, which are of outstanding universal value from the point of view of history, art or science;

Groups of buildings:

Groups of separate or connected buildings which, because of their architecture, their homogeneity or their place in the landscape, are of outstanding universal value from the point of view of history, art or science;

Sites:

Works of man or the combined works of nature and man, and areas including archaeological sites which are of outstanding universal value from the historical, aesthetic, ethnological or anthropological point of view.

Cultural landscapes represent the 'combined works of nature and of man'. They are illustrative of the evolution of human society and settlement over time, under the influence of the physical constraints and/or opportunities presented by their natural environment and of successive social, economic and cultural forces, both external and internal. Cultural landscapes include diverse examples of the interaction between humans and the natural environment and fall into three main categories:

(i) the clearly defined landscape designed and created intentionally by man;
(ii) the organically evolved landscape; and
(iii) the associative cultural landscape.

For a property to be included on the World Heritage List as cultural heritage, the World Heritage Committee must find that it meets one or more of the following criteria, the test of authenticity and be adequately protected. Sites nominated should therefore:

(i). represent a masterpiece of human creative genius; or
(ii). exhibit an important interchange of human values, over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world, on developments in architecture or technology, monumental arts, town-planning or landscape design; or
(iii). bear a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilisation which is living or which has disappeared; or
(iv). be an outstanding example of a type of building or architectural or technological ensemble or landscape which illustrates (a) significant stage(s) in human history; or
(v). be an outstanding example of a traditional human settlement or land-use which is representative of a culture (or cultures), especially when it has become vulnerable under the impact of irreversible change; or
(vi). be directly or tangibly associated with events or living traditions, with ideas, or with beliefs, with artistic and literary works of outstanding universal significance (the Committee considers that this criterion should justify inclusion in the List only in exceptional circumstances and in conjunction with other criteria cultural or natural);

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Natural Criteria

Article 2 of the World Heritage Convention defines natural heritage as:

(i) natural features consisting of physical and biological formations or groups of such formations, which are of outstanding universal value from the aesthetic or scientific point of view;
(ii) geological and physiographical formations and precisely delineated areas which constitute the habitat of threatened species of animals and plants of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science or conservation;
(iii) natural sites or precisely delineated natural areas of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science, conservation or natural beauty.

For a property to be included on the World Heritage List as natural heritage, the World Heritage Committee must find that it meets one or more of the following criteria and fulfils the conditions of integrity. Sites nominated should therefore:

(i). be outstanding examples representing major stages of earth's history, including the record of life, significant on-going geological processes in the development of landforms, or significant geomorphic or physiographic features; or
(ii). be outstanding examples representing significant on-going ecological and biological processes in the evolution and development of terrestrial, fresh water, coastal and marine ecosystems and communities of plants and animals; or
(iii). contain superlative natural phenomena or areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance; or
(iv). contain the most important and significant natural habitats for in situ conservation of biological diversity, including those containing threatened species of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science or conservation.

Original article can be found here: The Australian Hertage Directory's regional network for World Heritage managers, The Asia-Pacific Focal Point (APFP), that has been established to assist countries in the Asia-Pacific region adopt and implement the World Heritage Convention.

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