What is UNESCO and what is a UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site?
World heritage sites are educational sites and promoters of the goals and ideals of UNESCO. This stands for United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation, which has existed since 1945.
In 1963, the Egyptian Aswan Dam threatened to destroy the Abu Simbel temple. With UNESCO’s help, significant funds were raised to save the temple. This effort inspired the idea of protecting humanity’s heritage and designating UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
The basis for this was the “Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage”, adopted in 1972. The convention aims to protect cultural and natural monuments of exceptional universal value for all humankind.
What is the difference between a World Natural Heritage Site and a World Cultural Heritage Site?
Entsprechend der Kriterien der Konvention werden Welterbestätten unter anderem unterteilt in Weltkulturerbestätten, Weltnaturerbestätten und gemischte Weltkultur- und -naturerbestätten.
Outstanding monuments, historical city districts, cultural landscapes and even important industrial monuments are among the sites that count as World Heritage Sites. World Heritage Sites comprise unique natural landscapes, protected areas for endangered animal and plant species, and extraordinary geological formations. Together, these sites reflect the cultural and natural diversity of our planet and are a valuable heritage that should be preserved for future generations.
The criteria for the nomination of a natural heritage site are:
The criteria for the nomination of a natural heritage site are:
vii. The site contains outstanding natural phenomena or areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance.
viii. The site represents major stages of Earth’s history, including records of life, geological processes, or significant geomorphic or physiographic features.
ix. The site demonstrates significant ongoing ecological and biological processes in the evolution and development of ecosystems and communities of plants and animals.
x. The site contains the most important and significant natural habitats for in-situ conservation of biological diversity, including threatened species of outstanding universal value from the perspective of science or conservation.
For more information on the UNESCO World Heritage Sites and their goals, visit: www.welterbedeutschland.de
UNESCO World Heritage Sites Quiz
What connects the Pyramids of Giza with the Old Town of Krakow? What connects the Statue of Liberty in New York with beech forests? Take the analogue quiz to see how much you know about UNESCO World Heritage Sites and the WNH Grumsin Beech Forest.
Question 1
The history of mankind and the planet can be experienced at World Heritage Sites. World Heritage Sites are therefore monuments, untouched landscapes or groups of buildings that …
a) are important for a single country and must therefore be protected by the inhabitants of that country.
b) reflect an important historical period in Europe and must therefore be protected by us Europeans.
c) are of outstanding value to all of us and thus to the whole world and must therefore be protected by everyone.
Answer “c” is correct. World Heritage sites are not only important for the local people. Rather, they represent the heritage of all humanity. They must therefore be protected by all of us.
Question 2
What is understood as world heritage is set out in the UNESCO World Heritage Convention. Representatives of 193 states have now signed this convention. This makes it one of the most important agreements of the international community for the protection and preservation of…
a) humanity’s cultural and natural heritage.
b) humanity’s cultural heritage.
c) humanity’s natural heritage.
Answer “a”is correct. The Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (short: the World Heritage Convention) aims to preserve unique monuments (e.g., the Cologne Cathedral), groups of buildings (e.g., the Old Town of Warsaw), and sites (e.g., the ancient oasis city of Palmyra) as cultural heritage, as well as untouched natural landscapes and geological features (e.g., the Grumsin Beech Forest) as natural heritage of humankind.
Question 3
The fact that the UNESCO World Heritage Convention came into being in 1972 is no coincidence. What historical event prompted the adoption of the convention?
a) The Italian flood of 1966, which destroyed large parts of the lagoon city of Venice.
b) The Vietnam War, which caused the destruction of precious Asian temples between 1955 and 1975.
c) The construction of the Aswan High Dam, which threatened to engulf the Egyptian temple of Abu Simbel in its waters in 1963.
Answer “c” is correct. In 1963, the construction of the Aswan High Dam in Egypt threatened to destroy the temple of Abu Simbel. To save the temple, it had to be dismantled and reassembled further inland. Egypt could not possibly have accomplished this task alone. In an unprecedented international relief effort, UNESCO succeeded in mobilising more than 3,000 experts from around the world and raising 80 million dollars in donations. This enabled the rescue of the temple. This event prompted the international community to draw up an international convention to ensure the protection of humanity’s heritage: the UNESCO World Heritage Convention.
Question 4
World Heritage includes both cultural (monuments, groups of buildings, sites) and natural ( including untouched landscapes and geological structures). Which of the following sites are World Heritage Sites?
a) The historic old town of Krakow.
b) The Grand Canyon.
c) The beech forests of the Carpathians.
d) the Wadden Sea.
Answer “a”is correct. The historic city of Krakow was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1978. The many well-preserved monuments bear witness to the city’s development since the Middle Ages. The Grand Canyon, the beech forests of the Carpathians and the Wadden Sea, on the other hand, are among the world’s natural heritage sites.
Question 5
The Grumsin Beech Forest is located in a landscape characterized by its alternation of forests, wide open spaces, deep valleys and mountain ranges. Why is that so?
a) Because animals dug deep holes and piled up the earth.
b) Because brown coal was mined and the extraction left deep holes.
c) Because the last ice age changed the relief with its massive ice masses.
Answer “c” is correct. The relief was shaped by the last ice age. Ice masses covered the landscape and formed the present-day end moraine landscape with moors and small bodies of water.
