World Heritage Committee to examine 31 new sites for World Heritage List

PHNOM PENH, June 16 (Xinhua) -- The 37th session of the World Heritage Committee (WHC) would kick off on Sunday evening here and last until June 27 in order to consider inscribing 31 new sites onto the UNESCO's World Heritage list, spokesmen said Sunday.
"Originally, 32 new sites were expected to be examined for inscribing on the list, but the committee had refused to recognize Cat Tien National Park of Vietnam as a world natural heritage site due to its failure to meet the organization's requirements," Roni Amelan, UNESCO spokesman, said in a press briefing on Sunday.
He estimated that about 15 sites out of the 31 candidate sites would be inscribed on the World Heritage List during the forthcoming session.
According to the UNESCO's website, among the 31 sites, there are eight natural properties including Xinjiang Tianshan of China, Great Himalayan National Park of India, Mount Etna of Italy, Mount Kenya-Lewa Wildlife Conservancy of Kenya, El Pinacate and Gran Desierto de Altar Biosphere Reserve of Mexico, Namib Sand Sea of Namibia, Mount Hamiguitan Range Wildlife Sanctuary of the Philippines, and Tajik National Park (Mountains of the Pamirs) of Tajikistan.
In addition, there are four mixed natural and cultural properties including Pimachiowin Aki of Canada, Archipel des Bijag s -- Motom Moranghajogo of Guinea Bissau, Sehlabathebe National Park of Lesotho, and an extension of "uKhahlamba/Drakensberg Park" of South Africa, and other 19 cultural properties.
Besides, the 37th session of the World Heritage Committee would review the state of conservation of properties inscribed on the World Heritage List and decide which properties need to be placed in the World Heritage List in Danger or to be removed from the World Heritage List.
It would examine international assistance requests managed by the World Heritage Fund.
Dim Sovannarom, spokesman for the 37th session of the World Heritage Committee, said in the press briefing that the event would be held at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh on Sunday evening by Prime Minister Hun Sen with the participation of around 1,300 delegates from more than 120 countries.
He said at the opening ceremony, there would be art performance before a series of keynote remarks by UNESCO leaders and Prime Minister Hun Sen.
Cambodia is the fourth Asian countries, which was elected as host country of the 37th WHC session.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Xinhua on Tuesday, Deputy Prime Minister and Cabinet Minister Sok An, who is the Chairman of the 37th WHC session, said Cambodia was very proud to host such international meeting.
"Through this meeting, the World Heritage community would have the opportunity to know and understand the richness of Cambodian heritage and Cambodia's efforts for its protection and safeguarding in the context of sustainable development," he said.