Norway wants Svalbard on UNESCO’s World Heritage List
Photo: Jens Henrik Nybo/Innovation Norway
In its white paper to Stortinget the Norwegian Government will go in for a nomination for Svalbard to the prestigious World Heritage List, reports the Barents Observer.
The World Heritage List includes 878 properties forming part of the cultural and natural heritage which the World Heritage Committee considers as having outstanding universal value.
It is not yet known which part or how much of Svalbard that will be on the World Heritage List. This will be decided during the nomination process. 65 percent of the land area and 87 percent of the territorial waters within the 12 nautical mile boundary is today protected by the Svalbard Environmental Law, aimed to preserve the archipelago’s unique nature and culture.
Svalbard has been on the tentative list for nomination since 2007. An application for nomination will be ready earliest at the end of 2012, and will be considered by UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee in 2014, reports the Barents Observer.
Norwegian properties/ area inscribed on the World Heritage List:
- Bryggen (1979)
- Rock Art of Alta (1985)
- Røros Mining Town (1980)
- Struve Geodetic Arc (2005)
- Urnes Stave Church (1979)
- Vegaøyan — The Vega Archipelago (2004)
Properties submitted on the Tentative List:
- The Laponian Area – Tysfjord, the fjord of Hellemobotn and Rago (extension) (2002)
- The Lofoten islands (2002)
- Svalbard Archipelago (2007)
- Islands of Jan Mayen and Bouvet (serial transnational nomination of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge system) (2007)
- Røros Mining Town and its Circumference (extension to Røros Mining Town) (2008)
