• The UNESCO World Heritage Committee decided to remove three properties located in Madagascar, Egypt and Libya from the List of World Heritage in Danger.

• These removals are the result of extensive efforts by States Parties, with UNESCO’s support, to significantly reduce threats to these sites.

Which are these three sites?

1) Rainforests of the Atsinanana (Madagascar): The Rainforests of the Atsinanana were inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 2007 for its important biodiversity. The Rainforests and the species they support have faced a series of threats in recent years including illegal logging, trafficking of precious woods and deforestation negatively affecting the status of important key species such as Lemurs — leading to its inclusion on the List of World Heritage in Danger in 2010.

2) Abu Mena (Egypt): Abu Mena was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979 serving as an outstanding example of a pilgrimage site, cradle of Christian monasticism. The site was placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger in 2001 following concerns due to alarming rises in the water table caused by irrigation methods of surrounding farms and the collapse of several overlying structures.

3) Old Town of Ghadames (Libya): The Old Town of Ghadames was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1986 and has been a crossroads for major cultures of Africa and the Mediterranean basin. The site has been on the List of World Heritage in Danger since 2016 due to the prevailing conflict in the country at that time, wildfires and torrential rain.

• Since 2021, three sites in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and Senegal have also been removed from the List of World Heritage in Danger.

The List of World Heritage in Danger

• The List of World Heritage in Danger is designed to inform the international community of conditions which threaten the very characteristics for which a property was inscribed on the World Heritage List, and to encourage corrective action.

• It also enables the site to benefit from the right to increased technical and financial support from UNESCO.

• At present, there are 53 properties on the UNESCO World Heritage in Danger List.

• Armed conflict and war, earthquakes and other natural disasters, pollution, poaching, uncontrolled urbanisation and unchecked tourist development pose major problems to World Heritage Sites. 

• Dangers can be ‘ascertained’, referring to specific and proven imminent threats, or ‘potential’, when a property is faced with threats which could have negative effects on its World Heritage values.

• At its 43rd session (Baku, 2019), the World Heritage Committee recalled that the inscription of a property on the List of World Heritage in Danger, aims to marshal international support to help the State Party effectively address the challenges faced by the property by engaging with the World Heritage Centre and the advisory bodies to develop a programme of corrective measures to achieve the desired state of conservation for the property.

• Inscribing a site on the List of World Heritage in Danger allows the World Heritage Committee to allocate immediate assistance from the World Heritage Fund to the endangered property.

• The listing of a site as World Heritage in Danger allows the conservation community to respond to specific preservation needs in an efficient manner. Indeed, the mere prospect of inscribing a site on this List often proves to be effective, and can incite rapid conservation action.

• Inscription on the List of World Heritage in Danger is not perceived in the same way by all parties concerned. Some countries apply for the inscription of a site to focus international attention on its problems and to obtain expert assistance in solving them. 

• Others, however, wish to avoid an inscription, which they perceive as  dishonour. The listing of a site as World Heritage in Danger should in any case not be considered as a sanction, but as a system established to respond to specific conservation needs in an efficient manner.

• If a site loses the characteristics which determined its inscription on the World Heritage List, the World Heritage Committee may decide to delete the property from both the List of World Heritage in Danger and the World Heritage List.

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