The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organisation’s (UNESCO) World Heritage Committee has extended the status
of Vietnam’s Ha Long Bay to include Cat Ba Archipelago, the country’s
largest limestone archipelago.
It is now listed as one World Heritage site: Ha Long Bay - Cat Ba Archipelago. Ha Long Bay was first recognised in 1994.
Elsewhere in the region, Cambodia's Koh Ker Temple archaeological
site has been officially added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List, while
China’s Cultural Landscape of Old Tea Forests of Jingmai Mountain in
Pu’er has become the world’s first tea culture World Heritage Site.
The UN body has been assessing sites for their World Heritage status,
last week adding the Forest Massif of Odzala-Kokoua in Congo and the
volcanoes and forests of Mount Pelée and the Pitons on the French island
of Martinique to the list.
In Europe, the medieval Jewish town centre of Erfurt city in central Germany was also inscribed to UNESCO's World Heritage List.
Meanwhile, UNESCO has also added sites in Ukraine to its ‘in danger’
list. These are the St. Sophia Cathedral and the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra
monastery complex, both located in the capital city of Kyiv, and the
historical centre of Lviv in western Ukraine.
The World Heritage ‘in danger’ list includes heritage sites that are
threatened by forces such as armed conflict, natural disasters,
pollution and more.
Italy's Venice and its surrounding lagoon successfully avoided
placement on UNESCO's World Heritage in Danger list. However, the
committee had in July issued a warning, expressing concerns about
Italy's efforts to safeguard the city from the challenges of
overtourism, development, and climate change.