by Jim Thorsell – June 2002
Senior Advisor, World Heritage
The World Conservation Union (IUCN)
Since ratifying the UNESCO Convention concerning the protection for the World Cultural and Natural Heritage in 1976, Canada has been one of the more active of the State Parties that adhere to the Convention. It has been elected to the Committee on several occasions and served as chair. As the lead agency, Parks Canada has provided valuable input on various task forces and hosted various expert meetings and training workshops. Canada has been successful in having eight natural and five cultural sites inscribed on the World Heritage List.
The World Heritage Convention (WHC) has evolved considerably over the past decade, particularly in the preparation of a Global Strategy for a representative and balanced World Heritage List. The aim of the Global Strategy is to increase the types of heritage proposed for the World Heritage List and the regional representation of this heritage. One means to achieve this is by encouraging State Parties to prepare Tentative Lists, harmonize them and to encourage nominations from categories and regions currently not well represented on the World Heritage List.
Tentative Lists are meant to be used as a planning tool to enable comparison of themes, regions and biogeographic provinces. In the proposed new Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention now under review by the Committee [expected to be adopted in 2004]*, nominations for both natural and cultural sites will not be considered unless they have been included in the State Parties’ Tentative Lists. There is a standard format for sites on the Tentative List, and State Parties are requested to re-examine and resubmit their Tentative Lists at least every five to ten years. Further, the proposed new Operational Guidelines encourage State Parties “… to prepare their Tentative Lists with the participation of a wide variety of stakeholders including site managers, local and regional governments, local communities, NGO’s and other interested parties.”
Canada’s Tentative List was submitted in July 1980 and consisted of two cultural and ten natural sites. One cultural site was later added (Old Town Lunenburg in 1994), as was one natural site (Miguasha Park in 1998), to expedite their nominations. Parks Canada has acknowledged that the 1980 Tentative List is outdated and began a process to prepare a revised list in 2002.
This discussion paper provides a background for the process of preparing a revision of the 1980 Tentative List, which Parks Canada is intending to conduct. The specific objectives of this paper, which focuses on natural sites, are to:
- review recent trends and directions in the Global Strategy which have implications for Canada’s revised Tentative List;
- outline relevant data from IUCN thematic overviews on natural World Heritage Sites (WHS);
- propose a thematic framework for preparing a new Tentative List;
- examine the 1980 Tentative List in relation to current policy trends of the WHC;
- review other suggestions for potential natural nominations in Canada; and
- suggest other natural sites that may merit consideration for the revised Tentative List.
It is noted that this paper is limited to a desk study only and relies solely on information available from existing sources. Consultations were limited to several Parks Canada staff, and a wider canvassing of views was not attempted as part of this initial review.
* Remarks in square brackets were added by Parks Canada in March 2004. They are up dates or precisions added to make the text more relevant, 2 years after its writing.