World Heritage List
Kenyan lakes, Japanese islands, Australian coast added to UN Heritage List
The Kenya Lake System in the Great Rift Valley, Australia’s Ningaloo Coast and the Ogasawara Islands of Japan were today added to the World Heritage List, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) reported.
The World Heritage List, which currently includes more than 900 properties, is made up of sites deemed by the UNESCO-backed World Heritage Committee to be of outstanding universal value.
The committee is meeting this week at the Paris headquarters of UNESCO to discuss the latest nominations to the World Heritage List. A total of 35 nominations will be reviewed by the end of the committee’s session on 29 June.
The Kenya Lake System in the Great Rift Valley comprises three inter-linked, relatively shallow lakes – Lake Bogoria, Lake Nakuru and Lake Elementaita – in the country’s Rift Valley province and covers a total area of 32,034 hectares. It is home to 13 globally threatened bird species and some of the highest bird diversity in the world.
The 708,350-hectare marine and terrestrial property of Ningaloo Coast, on a remote section of the western coast of Australia, includes one of the longest near-shore reefs in the world and is home to numerous sea turtles and annual gatherings of whale sharks.
The 30 islands that comprise the Ogasawara are situated 1,000 kilometres south of Japan’s main archipelago and are home to a wealth of fauna, including the Bonin Flying Fox, a critically endangered bat, and 195 endangered bird species.
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