Friday 8th June 2007

World Heritage Convenes In New Zealand

For the first time New Zealand is hosting the World Heritage Committee’s annual meeting. This 31st Session will be held in Christchurch from 23 June to 2 July 2007 and chaired by Tumu te Heuheu, Paramount Chief of Ngati Tuwharetoa, New Zealand’s World Heritage representative for the last ten years.

Tumu te Heuheu; Hon Anand Satyanand, the Governor General; and Koichiro Matsuura, the Director General of UNESCO are among the speakers confirmed for the Opening Ceremony held on 23 June in the Christchurch Town Hall.

It is essential for media to register if they wish to cover the meeting. Registrations are processed online at www.31whc.org

Over 600 international delegates are expected to attend the Christchurch meeting which is closed to the public. The Committee will consider new site nominations, sites in danger, site management and protection, and will acknowledge national tentative lists for possible future World Heritage sites.

At the meeting it is decided whether or not nominated sites will attain World Heritage list status. In Christchurch Australia is nominating the Sydney Opera House. New Zealand will not be putting forward any sites for nomination but will be submitting a tentative list. Tentative lists are lists of sites that countries intend to nominate for World Heritage listing sometime in the future.

Thirty secondary school students from throughout the Asia Pacific region will join forces in Christchurch the week before the meeting as part of the Asia Pacific World Heritage Youth Forum 2007. The students will visit and study heritage sites throughout Te Wâhipounamu, South West New Zealand.

It is essential for media to register if they wish to attend and cover the meeting. Registrations are processed online at www.31whc.org

In 1972, UNESCO adopted the World Heritage Convention as a way to encourage the identification, protection and preservation of the world’s most outstanding cultural and natural heritage sites. With 183 member countries and more than 800 sites, it is one of the most widely supported United Nations’ conventions (for information about World Heritage see the website - whc.unesco.org).

New Zealand has three World Heritage sites which, like the Acropolis and the Grand Canyon, possess what the World Heritage Convention states as ‘outstanding universal value’.

* Tongariro National Park (1990 inscribed as a natural site, 1993 inscribed for associated cultural values)
The mountains at the heart of this park have cultural significance for Maori and symbolise the spiritual links between the community and its environment. It was the first site to be inscribed on the World Heritage list as a cultural landscape.

* Te Wâhipounamu – South West New Zealand World Heritage Area (1990 inscribed as a natural site)
This area includes the Fiordland, Mount Aspiring, Westland and Aoraki/Mount Cook National Parks comprising 10 percent of New Zealand’s land mass.

* The Sub-Antarctic Islands of New Zealand (1998 inscribed as a natural site)
In the Southern Ocean, The Snares, Bounty, Antipodes, Auckland and Campbell Islands are an outstanding World Heritage site. They are home to an extraordinary wealth of biodiversity and a high density of rare wildlife populations.

ENDS

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