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Unesco member states are expected to decide next week whether a series of cultural and natural landmarks, including a biblical site in the West Bank, castles in Lebanon, a wildlife migration route in South Sudan and Russia's Lake Baikal, should be added to the World Heritage in Danger list because of threats ranging from armed conflict to climate change.
Representatives from the 196 member states of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) will begin voting from Friday next week during a meeting in Busan, South Korea, on new additions to both the World Heritage List and the World Heritage in Danger List.
"We may not have the means to deploy peacekeepers... but we can send a message to the entire world," the director of Unesco's World Heritage Centre, Lazare Eloundou Assomo, told AFP.
"These sites are important, and everything must be done to prevent their destruction."
"Safeguarding heritage allows communities that have been traumatised, victims of conflicts, to begin to come back and rebuild," he added.
Unesco currently recognises around 1,200 sites as World Heritage locations worldwide.
Being included on the World Heritage List often boosts tourism and can help secure funding to preserve sites facing risks such as pollution, conflict and neglect.
Assomo said that being placed on the endangered heritage list should not be viewed as a penalty but rather as a way to help countries "find funding, partners and attention" to improve protection efforts.
Three sites that are not currently on the World Heritage List are expected to be fast-tracked directly onto the endangered list.
Among them is the archaeological site of Sebastia, identified as Biblical Samaria, in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank.
The archaeological site is located in an area under Israeli control, while Palestinians living in the neighbouring village, which is under dual Israeli-Palestinian control, have long relied on tourism linked to the ruins for their livelihoods and fear Israel could completely restrict access.
Although Israel left Unesco in 2017, it remains a member of the World Heritage Committee, which makes the final decision on heritage inscriptions.
Unesco members will also vote on granting priority status to five castles in southern Lebanon, an area that has come under Israeli fire. One of them, the Crusader fortress of Qalaat al-Chakif, or Beaufort Castle, was captured by Israeli troops in May.
Another proposal seeks to directly classify the Boma-Badingilo grassland and woodland savannahs in South Sudan as endangered due to the combined impact of war and climate change.
Every year, around one million animals, including antelopes and gazelles, migrate through the wilderness between the White Nile and the Ethiopian border, leaving tracks across the grasslands that can be seen from above.
Several sites already recognised as World Heritage locations are also under consideration for inclusion on the endangered list.
Among them are the remains of Roman baths, a second-century triumphal arch and a hippodrome in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, which has experienced heavy Israeli bombardment in recent months.
Another candidate is the ancient Greek settlement of Tauric Chersonese on the Crimea peninsula, which Russia unilaterally annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
Ukraine says the site is threatened by unauthorised excavations, extensive construction activity and the relocation of artefacts following Russia's invasion of Crimea.
Unesco is also considering placing Lake Baikal in Russia on the endangered list as concerns grow over pollution, mass tourism, large-scale logging and falling water levels linked to a dam upstream in Mongolia.
According to Russia, the Siberian lake contains 20 per cent of the world's unfrozen freshwater reserves and is widely known as the "Galapagos of Russia" because of its rich biodiversity.
In a 2023 report, the UN agency warned that unless the "unfolding ecological degradation of Lake Baikal" was urgently halted and reversed, the lake would be classified as endangered.
"Some actions are being implemented to address this," it added, but "the mission considers that they are not sufficient".
Alongside the endangered listings, Unesco members will also consider new World Heritage nominations.
These include the Normandy beaches in France, where Allied forces landed on June 6, 1944, during World War II, as well as two theatres in the Amazon forest in Brazil and the Tunisian village of Sidi Bou Said.
Representatives from the 196 member states of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) will begin voting from Friday next week during a meeting in Busan, South Korea, on new additions to both the World Heritage List and the World Heritage in Danger List.
"We may not have the means to deploy peacekeepers... but we can send a message to the entire world," the director of Unesco's World Heritage Centre, Lazare Eloundou Assomo, told AFP.
"These sites are important, and everything must be done to prevent their destruction."
"Safeguarding heritage allows communities that have been traumatised, victims of conflicts, to begin to come back and rebuild," he added.
Unesco currently recognises around 1,200 sites as World Heritage locations worldwide.
Heritage listing can unlock support
Being included on the World Heritage List often boosts tourism and can help secure funding to preserve sites facing risks such as pollution, conflict and neglect.
Assomo said that being placed on the endangered heritage list should not be viewed as a penalty but rather as a way to help countries "find funding, partners and attention" to improve protection efforts.
Three sites proposed for immediate endangered status
Three sites that are not currently on the World Heritage List are expected to be fast-tracked directly onto the endangered list.
Among them is the archaeological site of Sebastia, identified as Biblical Samaria, in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank.
The archaeological site is located in an area under Israeli control, while Palestinians living in the neighbouring village, which is under dual Israeli-Palestinian control, have long relied on tourism linked to the ruins for their livelihoods and fear Israel could completely restrict access.
Although Israel left Unesco in 2017, it remains a member of the World Heritage Committee, which makes the final decision on heritage inscriptions.
Unesco members will also vote on granting priority status to five castles in southern Lebanon, an area that has come under Israeli fire. One of them, the Crusader fortress of Qalaat al-Chakif, or Beaufort Castle, was captured by Israeli troops in May.
Another proposal seeks to directly classify the Boma-Badingilo grassland and woodland savannahs in South Sudan as endangered due to the combined impact of war and climate change.
Every year, around one million animals, including antelopes and gazelles, migrate through the wilderness between the White Nile and the Ethiopian border, leaving tracks across the grasslands that can be seen from above.
Existing heritage sites also face endangered listing
Several sites already recognised as World Heritage locations are also under consideration for inclusion on the endangered list.
Among them are the remains of Roman baths, a second-century triumphal arch and a hippodrome in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, which has experienced heavy Israeli bombardment in recent months.
Another candidate is the ancient Greek settlement of Tauric Chersonese on the Crimea peninsula, which Russia unilaterally annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
Ukraine says the site is threatened by unauthorised excavations, extensive construction activity and the relocation of artefacts following Russia's invasion of Crimea.
Lake Baikal among natural sites under scrutiny
Unesco is also considering placing Lake Baikal in Russia on the endangered list as concerns grow over pollution, mass tourism, large-scale logging and falling water levels linked to a dam upstream in Mongolia.
According to Russia, the Siberian lake contains 20 per cent of the world's unfrozen freshwater reserves and is widely known as the "Galapagos of Russia" because of its rich biodiversity.
In a 2023 report, the UN agency warned that unless the "unfolding ecological degradation of Lake Baikal" was urgently halted and reversed, the lake would be classified as endangered.
"Some actions are being implemented to address this," it added, but "the mission considers that they are not sufficient".
Other sites seek World Heritage recognition
Alongside the endangered listings, Unesco members will also consider new World Heritage nominations.
These include the Normandy beaches in France, where Allied forces landed on June 6, 1944, during World War II, as well as two theatres in the Amazon forest in Brazil and the Tunisian village of Sidi Bou Said.
