Outrageous: Only two sites from the Arab World in UNESCO World Natural Heritage List
Arab Environment Monitor
July 20, 2007
Batir Wardham
While thinking of which Arab sites can be nominated for the new 7 natural wonders campaign which has started right after the end of the New Seven Wonders competition which saw Petra as a winner, I was trtying to see how many Arab sites are actually inscribed in the official UNESCO World Natural Heritage List. I know they are not too much and I know that one site in Oman was deleted recently for failing to adhere to guidelines, but I have never thought the number will be only TWO sites.
The first is the Ichkeul national park in Tunisia that ws inscribed in 1980. The Ichkeul lake and wetland are a major stopover point for hundreds of thousands of migrating birds, such as ducks, geese, storks and pink flamingoes, who come to feed and nest there. Ichkeul is the last remaining lake in a chain that once extended across North Africa.
Almost 25 year later the second site inscribed is the Whale Valley in Egypt. Wadi Al-Hitan, Whale Valley, in the Western Desert of Egypt, contains invaluable fossil remains of the earliest, and now extinct, suborder of whales, the archaeoceti. These fossils represent one of the major stories of evolution: the emergence of the whale as an ocean-going mammal from a previous life as a land-based animal. This is the most important site in the world for the demonstration of this stage of evolution. It portrays vividly the form and life of these whales during their transition. The number, concentration and quality of such fossils here is unique, as is their accessibility and setting in an attractive and protected landscape. The fossils of Al-Hitan show the youngest archaeocetes, in the last stages of losing their hind limbs. They already display the typical streamlined body form of modern whales, whilst retaining certain primitive aspects of skull and tooth structure. Other fossil material in the site makes it possible to reconstruct the surrounding environmental and ecological conditions of the time.
Wadi Al-Hitan is the most important site in the world to demonstrate one of the iconic changes that make up the record of life on Earth: the evolution of the whales. It portrays vividly their form and mode of life during their transition from land animals to a marine existence. It exceeds the values of other comparable sites in terms of the number, concentration and quality of its fossils, and their accessibility and setting in an attractive and protected landscape. It accords with key principles of the IUCN study on fossil World Heritage Sites, and represents significant values that are currently absent from the World Heritage List.
Two exquisite sites are not enough. The shoratge of Arab sites in the UNESCO World natural Heritage List is a function of the inadequate capacity of Arab environmental and tourism agencies. The process of inscription is difficult and involves adherence to strict guidelines. I am sure there are many sites in the Arab World that can be inscribed including the famous Soqotra in Yemen and maybe Wadi Rum in Jordan. Arab Ministries of environment and tourism have to do their job properly and focus on including the Arab sites in the list.
http://www.arabenvironment.net/archive/2007/7/272344.html