Jordan and Germany join World Heritage
Paris, France, 25 June, 2011 (IUCN) – The Wadi Rum Protected Area in Jordan has just been declared a World Heritage
Site, becoming the 211th natural site to join UNESCO’s prestigious list.
In addition, the Ancient Beech Forests of Germany, an extension to the Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians, an
existing World Heritage Site in Slovakia and Ukraine, has also been approved by the World Heritage Committee.
IUCN, the independent advisory body on nature to UNESCO, presented the findings of its comprehensive evaluations of the
natural values of 13 nominated sites to the World Heritage Committee and recommended for inscription three sites. The
Lakes System in the Great Rift Valley in Kenya, the Ningaloo Coast in Australia and the Ogasawara Islands in Japan were
all added to the World Heritage List yesterday.
The Wadi Rum Protected Area in Jordan, a mixed natural and cultural site added to the List today,
is located in the southern part of Jordan close to the border with Saudi Arabia and forms a major part of the Hisma
desert. The highly varied desert landscape is the product of millions of years of geological processes, and thousands of
years of interactions between humans and nature in a hostile desert environment. The human settlements in Wadi Rum go
back to 12,000 years.
“Wadi Rum is composed of scenically stunning natural and cultural attributes in a lived-in desert environment where
geology has been the ever-present artist,” says Allen Putney, Vice-Chair for World Heritage of IUCN’s World Commission
on Protected Areas. “IUCN welcomes this inscription and hopes that it will lead to enhanced protection and management of
the site.”