Thread: Why is the 1972 Convention Concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage, which we have recently ratified important? 1) It links together the concepts of nature conservation and the preservation of cultural properties

2) It sets out the duties of States Parties in identifying potential sites & their role in protecting & preserving them. By signing the Convention, country pledge to conserve not only the World Heritage sites situated on their territory, but also to protect its national heritage.

3) It is concerned with heritage of outstanding universal value forming part of the cultural & natural heritage of the world. The Tentative List is an inventory of those properties which each State Party intends to consider for nomination on the World Heritage List in the future.

4) The Convention also provides for a List of World Heritage in Danger, which is designed to inform the international community of conditions threatening the characteristics under which a property was inscribed on the World Heritage List, and to encourage corrective action.

5) Armed conflict and war are considered a great danger to the world heritage. Under the Convention, the World Heritage Committee can inscribe on the List of World Heritage in Danger properties whose protection requires ‘major operations (…) and for which assistance has been...

5 con)...requested’. Inscription of a site on the List of World Heritage in Danger requires the World Heritage Committee to develop and adopt, in consultation with the State Party concerned, a programme for corrective measures, & subsequently to monitor the situation of the site.