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TEXT 10. PROTECTION OF CULTURAL AND NATURAL HERITAGE
The Convention established an Intergovernmental Committee for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, one of the principal tasks of which is the establishment, publication and dissemination of the "World Heritage List". The listed natural sites include Australia's Great Barrier Reef; the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone and the Everglades in the United States; the Galapagos Islands (Ecuador), and the Serengeti Park (Tanzania). In certain cases, like Machu Picchu in Peru, the sites qualify both as natural and as cultural heritage.
The World Heritage Committee also establishes and publishes a "List of World Heritage in Danger" that includes property imminently threatened by proven serious and specific dangers such as the threat of disappearance caused by accelerated deterioration, large-scale public or private projects or rapid urban or tourist development projects, destruction caused by changes in the use or ownership of the land, major alterations due to unknown causes, abandonment, armed conflict, calamities and cataclysms, such as serious fires, earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruptions, etc.
As noted, the UNESCO Convention recognizes that items of cultural and natural heritage are increasingly threatened with destruction, not only by traditional causes of decay, but also by changing social and economic conditions, and calls for the international community to participate in its protection by granting collective assistance to complement individual state action.
Cultural and natural property that forms part of the world heritage remains subject to the legislation of the state where it is located. These resources continue to belong to public or private establishments or even to individuals as the national law provides. Thus, territorial sovereignty and property rights over the world cultural and natural heritage are respected.
Under the Convention, each state party ensures the identification, protection, conservation, presentation and transmission to future generations of the natural heritage situated in its territory. In the Commonwealth of Australia v. The State of Tasmania, the High Court of Australia considered whether these duties contained legal obligations to protect sites. In a 4-3 ruling, the Court decided the Convention obligations were legal in nature. States parties are also to endeavour, as appropriate, to adopt a general policy to give the heritage a function in the life of the community and to integrate the protection of that heritage into comprehensive planning programs. Other legal, scientific, technical, administrative and financial measures must be taken, including the creation of special services for the protection, conservation and presentation of this heritage, and research and training. States parties periodically submit reports to a specially created committee on the measures that they have taken to implement the Convention.
The process for inclusion of sites on the "World Heritage List" is as follows. Every state party to the Convention must submit an inventory including documentation on the location and significance of property forming part of the cultural and natural heritage situated on its territory and which it considers of outstanding universal value. From this inventory, the state party selects sites that it nominates for inscription on the World Heritage List. The World Heritage Committee considers the nominations of states parties and decides which merit inclusion in the List.