Three sites were removed from the List of World Heritage in Danger on Sunday, but two others were added, said Francesco Bandarin, UNESCO’s director of World Heritage, speaking on Monday during a break in the ongoing 28th Session of the World Heritage Committee in Suzhou.

The three sites delisted were Angkor Wat of Cambodia, Bahla Fort of Oman and Rwenzori Mountains National Park of Uganda.

On the same day, the Cologne Cathedral of Germany and the ruins of Kilwa Kisiwani and Songo Mnara of Tanzania were added to the endangered list.

The List of World Heritage in Danger is designed to inform the international community of conditions that threaten the sites so that corrective or preventive measures may be taken. Inscription on the list requires the committee to develop and adopt, together with the State Party concerned, a program for corrective measures, and the committee continues to monitor the situation.

The Bam City of Iraq, which was selected for inclusion on the World Heritage List this year, is a special case: it was inscribed at the same time to the List of World Heritage in Danger.

The conservation of five sites in China is being discussed on Monday. The sites are the Three Parallel Rivers of the Yunnan Protected Areas; the Imperial Palace of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (the Forbidden City) in Beijing; the Historic Ensemble of the Potala Palace in Tibet; the Classical Gardens of Suzhou; and the Ancient Building Complex in the Wudang Mountains of Hubei Province.

Bandarin said that improving work in buffer zones and avoiding encroachment of other sites are important to the Chinese heritage sites. The World Heritage Committee is trying to support the Chinese government in its protection of the sites.

The building of a new museum beside the Humble Administrator’s Garden in Suzhou is a matter of concern to the committee. Bandarin, however, said the committee members had carefully examined the area and the plans, and he did not see a problem with the construction.

Bandarin believes that economic development and heritage protection need not be mutually exclusive. Many places have accomplished both, he pointed out.

However, protecting the world’s heritage is a difficult and long-term task, and he is concerned about the current situation. Heritage sites must be protected now, he emphasized. If heritage is destroyed, it may be lost as an economic asset now, but it is lost as heritage forever.

(China.org.cn by staff reporter Li Jinhui, July 5, 2004)