Three Historical Treasures of Africa: Endangerment Successfully Stopped!

Three Historical Treasures of Africa: Endangerment Successfully Stopped!

UNESCO recently announced good news at a meeting of the World Heritage Committee in Paris: three African World Heritage sites have been removed from the list of endangered sites. These include the ruins of the early Christian pilgrimage site Abu Mena in Egypt, the old town of Ghadames in Libya and the rainforests of Atsinanana in Madagascar. This decision shows that the protective measures taken by the responsible actors are fruitful and the sites are now no longer considered threatened. As Deutschlandfunk Kultur reports, the list of threatened world heritage now includes 53 entries, including the old town of Vienna.

World Heritage is a valuable part of our global heritage and is often under pressure. The causes are diverse: natural disasters, global warming, wars, structural developments and, last but not least, mass tourism pose major challenges. According to UNESCO, these risk factors must be carefully monitored in order to preserve the uniqueness of these sites. In addition to the sites already mentioned, others, such as the Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the historic center of Lviv in Ukraine, are also under threat from armed conflict and illegal activities, as Wikipedia has summarized.

Threats to world heritage

The endangerment of our cultural assets is not a new issue. Many World Heritage sites are the result of decades of development that need to be continually adapted. In addition, all conversion and expansion measures must be compatible with the World Heritage in order not to endanger the exceptional universal value of the sites. This was also underlined by UNESCO, which emphasized that development projects may only be implemented if they do not contradict the protection objectives of the World Heritage Convention.

In this context, it is particularly important that World Heritage impact assessments are carried out at an early stage. If these are missing, the preventive protection system could get out of hand and, in the worst case, even result in the loss of all protection objectives. Especially in cities like Vienna, where the old town has been on the list of World Heritage in Danger since 2001, these testing criteria are of crucial importance in order to preserve the cultural heritage.

The role of the public

However, it is not only the responsibility of authorities and institutions to protect world heritage. Society also plays a crucial role. Awareness of the threats to our cultural treasures must be raised. Only in this way can measures to preserve historical sites be carried out together. Anyone who lives in Vienna or visits the city should be aware of this responsibility and actively participate in protecting the impressive old town and its history.

Ultimately, it remains to be hoped that the successful removal of the three African sites from the endangered list will be an incentive for further protective measures around the world. Because preserving our common heritage is a task that affects us all.