From June 26 to July 6, 2012 in St. Petersburg, for the first time in Russia, the 36th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Site was held. The convention of this organization concerning the protection of the world cultural and natural heritage is one of the most effective international legal documents. It has already been joined by 189 countries, whose objects of cultural and natural heritage are included in a special list that guarantees their protection and preservation.
During this representative forum, which was attended by representatives of 21 states, it was planned to consider the issue of including 31 sites on the World Heritage List, some of which are located on the territory of Russia.
Representatives of our country were going to submit for consideration the issue of listing the first Russian serial nomination "Kremlin of Russia" as part of the monuments of ancient Russian architecture of Pskov, Uglich and Astrakhan, the object "Historical Center of St. Petersburg and Related Monuments", as well as the Yakut National Park "Lena Pillars".
Unfortunately, the officials could not prepare the package of documents for the first two sites on time, so only one natural heritage site from Russia was considered at the session - "Lena Pillars". 19 countries voted for its inclusion in the World Heritage List. This means that now international experts and observers will control all processes related to the protection and development of this unique natural monument.
For the first time in the history of the organization, sites from Qatar, Congo, Palau, Palestine and the Republic of Chad were nominated. The St. Petersburg Forum added only 26 new sites to the World Heritage List, some of them cultural, some of them natural.
Among the new, protected from now on by UNESCO, natural sites: Lakes Unianga - a complex of 18 interconnected lakes located in the Sahara Desert, the western Ghats mountain range in India. The list also includes such natural monuments as the landscapes of Carioca in Brazil and the Lenggong Valley in Malaysia. The beauty of the rocky islands of the South Lagoon (Palau) and the cultural landscape of Bali province (Indonesia) were appreciated at its true worth at the session.
The objects of cultural heritage were the decorations of rural houses in the Swedish province of Helsingland, a military town in Portugal, as well as places, according to legend, associated with the birth of Jesus Christ, the Nahal Mearot and Wadi el-Mugara caves, found on Mount Carmel in Israel. The Moroccan city of Rabat, the modern capital and historic city have been listed as a common heritage.
