UNESCO: Three African sites off World Heritage danger list

The World Heritage Committee has removed three African heritage sites -- in Madagascar, Egypt and Libya -- from UNESCO’s list of sites in danger, acknowledging successful efforts to mitigate threats and restore their cultural and ecological integrity. The decision was taken on July 9 during the ongoing 47th session of the World Heritage Committee (WHC) in Paris, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) said in a statement on Wednesday. It said these removals are the result of extensive efforts by states parties, with UNESCO's support, to significantly reduce threats to these sites.

The sites taken off the danger list are the Rainforests of the Atsinanana in Madagascar, Abu Mena in Egypt, and the Old Town of Ghadamès in Libya. "When sites are removed from the List of World Heritage in Danger, it is a great victory for all. For the countries and communities directly concerned, for UNESCO and, more broadly, for the shared heritage of humanity," Director General of UNESCO Audrey Azoulay said according to the statement."We are pursuing a special effort for Africa, both to train experts and facilitate new inscriptions and to support strategies to bring some sites out of danger. These efforts are paying off today", she said.

The Rainforests of the Atsinanana were inscribed on its World Heritage List in 2007 for its important biodiversity. The rainforests and the species they support have faced a "series of threats" in recent years including illegal logging, trafficking of precious woods and deforestation negatively affecting the status of important key species such as Lemurs – leading to its inclusion on the List of World Heritage in Danger in 2010, it said.

In Egypt, Abu Mena was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979 serving as an outstanding example of a pilgrimage site, cradle of Christian monasticism. "The site was placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger in 2001 following concerns due to alarming rise in the water table caused by irrigation methods of surrounding farms and the collapse of several overlying structures," the statement further said.

It said Libya’s Old Town of Ghadamès, recognised in 1986 for its cultural links across Africa and the Mediterranean, was placed on the danger list in 2016 amid conflict, wildfires and flooding. The purpose of the danger list is to provide information on the threats to the very values that led to the inclusion of a property on the World Heritage List, and to mobilise the international community to preserve the site. It also enables the site to benefit from the right to increased technical and financial support from UNESCO.