All news

Cambodia to host next session of UNESCO Committee of World Heritage

The remains of mammoths, buffalos and other animals have been discovered in its territory in various years
Photo ITAR-TASS
Photo ITAR-TASS

ST. PETERSBURG, July 8 (Itar-Tass) — The 36th session of the UNESCO Committee of World Heritage has ended in St. Petersburg. Cambodia will host the next session in 2013.

The St. Petersburg session included 26 new word heritage sites in the UNESCO World Heritage list. They include five natural, 20 cultural and one mixed (natural and cultural) site.

The Lenskiye Stolby (the Pillars of Lena River) National Park was also included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. That was the most significant event for Russia.

The Lenskiye Stolby National Park is located in the middle reaches of the Lena River in the Sakha Republic (Yakutia).

The remains of mammoths, buffalos and other animals have been discovered in its territory in various years. A unique Old Stone Age camping ground and primitive instruments of labor have also been found.

The park has numerous examples of solid rock which forms colonnades, towers, arches and churches. Small sand dunes almost deprived of vegetation known as ‘tukkulany’ are another natural landmark in the park.

The 36th session of the UNESCO Committee of World Heritage opened in St. Petersburg on June 24 under Russia’s chairmanship and closed on July 6. It was attended by delegates from 21 countries.

Eleonora Mitrofanova, who chairs the UNESCO Committee of World Heritage, said the session had passed brilliantly. “It’s clear that St. Petersburg has great experience in organizing events of such level. The session showed that there are many issues related to further development of the (UNESCO) convention and a search of balance between the needs of development and conservation of national heritage by countries, including cultural and natural sites,” Mitrofanova went on to say.

She believes that these issues should be included in the agenda of the next UNESCO session in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.