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World Heritage Convention
In June 2009, at the request of the World Heritage Committee, IUCN in consultation with the UNESCO World Heritage Centre published a new compendium reviewing the application of the List of World Heritage in Danger to natural heritage sites.1 The List of World Heritage in Danger is a key conservation tool under the 1972 World Heritage Convention2 to conserve the Outstanding Universal Value3 of the sites inscribed on the World Heritage List.4 The List of World Heritage in Danger is defined as follows:
a list of the property appearing in the World Heritage List for the conservation of which major operations are necessary and for which assistance has been requested under this Convention. This list shall contain an estimate of the cost of such operations. The list may include only such property forming part of the cultural and natural heritage as is threatened by serious and specific dangers, such as the threat of disappearance caused by accelerated deterioration, large-scale public or private projects or rapid urban or tourist development projects; destruction caused by changes in the use or ownership of the land; major alterations due to unknown causes; abandonment for any reason whatsoever; the outbreak or the threat of an armed conflict; calamities and cataclysms; serious fires, earthquakes, landslides; volcanic eruptions; changes in water level, floods and tidal waves. The Committee may at any time, in case of urgent need, make a new entry in the List of World Heritage in Danger and publicize such entry immediately.5
The IUCN Compendium, entitled "World Heritage in Danger" was presented to the World Heritage Committee at its 33rd session, which took place in Sevilla, Spain in June 2009.6 The Compendium provides an analysis of the use of this important instrument of the World Heritage Convention.
The operation of the List of World Heritage in Danger (sometimes called the "In-Danger List") has been a regular source of discussion. Prior to the major review of the "Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention" (Operational Guidelines) in 2005, there was a significant discussion at the 6th Extraordinary Session of the World Heritage Committee in 2003 on the question of whether the Committee must obtain previous consent from the concerned State Party before inscribing a...