Being named to the World Heritage List
The process to be inscribed on the World Heritage List takes years, said Rossler, adding that several sites waited some 25 years to be named to the prestigious list.
Only countries that ratify the World Heritage Convention (adopted by UNESCO in 1972) are eligible to have sites within their territories named to the list. Called State Parties, there are currently 194 around the globe.
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The World Heritage Convention set forth the idea that loss of cultural and natural heritage such as Afghanistan s Buddhas of Bamiyan which were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001 harmed all the nations of the world.
Being named a UNESCO World Heritage site is a big deal — so is losing it
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Cambodia blocks Angkor Wat resort, will Laos stop the dam at its UNESCO site?
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Last week, Radio Free Asia reported that UNESCO has requested an assessment for a planned hydropower dam close to the town of Luang Prabang, fearing that the dam’s potential impact could put the World Heritage Site at risk.
Luang Prabang is the former center of the precolonial Lan Xang kingdom and has remained an important spiritual and religious center in the centuries since. UNESCO added Luang Prabang to its World Heritage list in 1995, describing its antique old town as “an outstanding example of the fusion of traditional architecture and Lao urban structures with those built by the European colonial authorities in the 19th and 20th centuries.”