Periodic Report on the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention
 

PERIODIC REPORT

WORLD HERITAGE CONVENTION

CANADA

APPLICATION OF THE
WORLD HERITAGE CONVENTION
IN NORTH AMERICA

7.0 Recommendations and Plan of Action for North America

As a result of the preparation of this periodic report, Canada and the United States recommend that:

1.The World Heritage Committee undertake research on how to recognize the importance of local populations residing within and/or adjacent to natural World Heritage Sites;

2.The World Heritage Committee pause in its cycle of periodic reports in order to develop strategic direction on:

• The forms and format of the report
• Training priorities based on periodic reports from all regions
• International cooperation priorities based on all periodic reports
• The possible inclusion of Mexico in the North American region

3.The World Heritage Committee clarify the requirements (template) for management plans;

4.The World Heritage Committee develop guidelines for evaluating visual impacts on World Heritage Sites.

Further, Canada and the United States have identified a series of future decisions for the Committee, resulting from the periodic report exercise. These future decisions arise specifically from the Section II reports and are summarized below. The decisions will be prepared for Committee consideration in cooperation with the Advisory Bodies and the World Heritage Centre.

Approval of new or revised statements of significance:

• All of the 11 Canadian World Heritage Sites
• All of the 18 United States World Heritage Sites
• The 2 transboundary World Heritage Sites

Name change:

• Nahanni National Park to Nahanni National Park Reserve
• Historic District of Québec to Historic District of Old Québec (with the fusion of the municipalities there are now more than one historic district in the enlarged Québec City.)
• Mesa Verde to Mesa Verde National Park
• Yellowstone to Yellowstone National Park
• La Fortaleza and San Juan Historic Site in Puerto Rico to La Fortaleza and San Juan National Historic Site in Puerto Rico
• Chaco Culture National Historical Park to Chaco Culture (the site includes Aztec Ruins National Monument and several smaller Chaco sites managed by the Bureau of Land Management)

Criterion adjustment due to substantive revisions of criteria over the years:

• Nahanni [(1978) Criteria N ii and iii]: Was inscribed under criteria N ii for its geological processes. Geological processes were moved to N i in February 1994. Therefore, it should be now N i and N iii.
• Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks [(1980, 1984, 1990) Criteria N i, ii and iii]: Was inscribed under criteria N ii for its geological processes. Geological processes were moved to N i in February 1994. Therefore, it should be now N i and N iii.
• Kluane/Wrangell-St. Elias/Glacier Bay/Tatshenshini-Alsek [(1979, 1992, 1994) Criteria N ii, iii and iv]: Kluane and Wrangell-St. Elias were inscribed in 1979 under criteria N ii for the geological processes. Geological processes were moved to N i in February 1994. In 1992, Glacier Bay was nominated as an extension to the existing site on the basis of criteria N ii. Therefore, it should now becriteria N i, ii, iii and iv.

Clarification of criteria for inscription

• L'Anse aux Meadows [(1978) Criterion C vi]: Inscribed under criterion C vi only, while an ICOMOS technical evaluation note recommended criterion C iii as well.
• Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump [(1981), Criterion C vi]: While the ICOMOS evaluation provided a recommendation on criterion C vi, the evaluation describes values that are also clearly associated with criteria C iii and v.
• Nahanni [(1978) Criteria N ii and iii]: The IUCN evaluation describes values associated with criteria N iv and some documents mention that Nahanni was inscribed under criterion iv as well.