From June 26 to July 6, 2012 in St. Petersburg, for the first time in Russia, the 36th UNESCO World Heritage Session was held. The organization’s Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage is one of the most effective international legal instruments. Already 189 countries have joined it, whose objects of cultural and natural heritage are included in a special list guaranteeing their protection and preservation.
During this representative forum, which was attended by representatives of 21 states, it was planned to consider the inclusion of 31 objects in the World Heritage List, some of which are located in Russia.
The representatives of our country were going to submit for consideration the issue of listing the first Russian serial nomination “Kremlin of Russia” as part of the monuments of ancient Russian architecture of Pskov, Uglich and Astrakhan, the object “The historical center of St. Petersburg and related monuments”, as well as the Yakut National Park "Lena Pillars".
Unfortunately, officials were unable to prepare a package of documents for the first two sites on time, so only one natural heritage site from Russia, the Lena Pillars, was considered at the session. 19 countries voted to be included in the World Heritage List. This means that now international experts and observers will control all processes related to the protection and development of this unique natural monument.
For the first time in the organization’s history, facilities from Qatar, Congo, Palau, Palestine and the Republic of Chad were nominated. The St. Petersburg Forum included in the “World Heritage List” a total of 26 new objects, some of them cultural, some natural.
Among the new, now protected by UNESCO sites of nature: Lake Uniang - a complex of 18 interconnected lakes located in the Sahara Desert, the western Ghat mountain range in India. The list also included such natural monuments as the landscapes of Carioca in Brazil and the Lenggong Valley in Malaysia. The beauty of the rocky islands of the South Lagoon (Palau) and the cultural landscape of the province of Bali (Indonesia) were appreciated at the session.
The objects of cultural heritage included the decoration of rural houses in the Swedish province of Helsingland, a military town in Portugal, as well as places, according to legend, associated with the birth of Jesus Christ, the caves Nahal Mearot and Wadi al-Mugar, found on Mount Carmel in Israel. The Moroccan city of Rabat, the modern capital and historical city were listed as a common heritage.
