Unesco revokes Liverpool's World Heritage status

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Photo: Steve Samosa / EyeEm / Getty Images

Liverpool can no longer call itself a world heritage site.

Unesco has revoked the city's designation as a

»

maritime trading city«.

The committee responsible for education, science, culture and communication made the decision at its 44th meeting.

Liverpool was one of the most important trading centers in the world in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Whether modern dock technology, transport systems or port management, the city was pioneering in the development of modern industry - and played a major role in the development of the British empire.

Six places in the historic center and in the port of Liverpool are evidence of this to this day.

But the Unesco committee sees the value of the port city damaged by numerous construction projects.

A Unesco document states that Liverpool has long since lost the character that led to it being classified as a world heritage site.

In almost 50 years of the World Heritage Convention this has seldom happened, only two other World Heritage sites have their status completely revoked - one of them was the Dresden Elbe Valley, which was removed

from the list of World Heritage Sites in

2009 because of the construction of the »Waldschlösschenbrücke

«

.

Before that, Oman had lost its status due to the reduction of the wildlife sanctuary for the rare Arabian oryx antelopes.

Five applications from Germany

The World Heritage Committee will meet until July 31st. It is made up of 21 elected signatory states to the World Heritage Convention. As a rule, the committee decides annually on the inscription of new cultural and natural sites on the World Heritage List and deals with the condition of the sites that have already been included. Because of the pandemic, the conference was postponed last year.

Among the around 40 nominations for new World Heritage sites at the conference, there are also five applications with German participation: The Mathildenhöhe artists' colony in Darmstadt, the Jewish cultural heritage in Mainz, Speyer and Worms, the health resorts of Baden-Baden, Bad Ems and Bad Kissingen as part of important historical ones Baths in Europe as well as the Roman border walls of the Danube Limes and Lower German Limes.

These applications are to be discussed from the coming weekend.

So far there are 46 world heritage sites in Germany out of 1,120 worldwide, 51 of which are considered threatened.

Australia fears damage to its image

Australia is trying to postpone a proposed committee's inclusion of the Climate Change-threatened Great Barrier Reef in the list of endangered natural sites.

As a result of climate change, the Great Barrier Reef off the northeast coast of Australia is threatened by warm water and coral bleaching.

Unesco has urged Australia, the coal country, to take action against climate change.

The long-term prospects for the natural wonder have changed from

"

bad

"

to "very bad

"

.

Success for the Democratic Republic of the Congo

The World Heritage Committee also decided to remove the Salonga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo from the list of endangered sites because it is

no longer considered endangered

"

thanks to successful protective measures

"

.

Salonga is the largest protected area of ​​tropical rainforest in Africa and the habitat of many threatened species.

Bonobos and forest elephants are found here as well as the Congo peacock.

Salonga has been on the Red List since 1999 because of poaching and oil extraction plans, among other things.

However, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has promised not to produce any oil in the area in the future.

At the same time, the Unesco Committee calls for efforts to combat poaching to be continued, for better monitoring to be ensured and for the local population to be more closely involved in management.

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