Norfolk Broads World Heritage Status bid
The Broads Authority is considering bidding for World Heritage Status for the Broads - the ultimate cultural accolade which would raise its profile on the global scene.
The Broads Authority is considering bidding for World Heritage Status for the Broads - the ultimate cultural accolade which would raise its profile on the global scene.
It would put the area on a par with the Pyramids, Machu Picchu, Victoria Falls, the Great Barrier Reef and the historic centre of Florence.
The Broads is already a member of the UK's family of National Parks and a wetland of international importance and renown.
World Heritage Status carries enormous prestige. It helps to promote the site internationally and attract new visitors as well as encouraging the highest quality standards for tourism and for managing and protecting the site.
The decision to bid for recognition of the Broads as a cultural landscape under the World Heritage Convention, was first mooted in 2005/6, but was put on hold to await government guidance.
Next Friday, Broads Authority members will discuss whether the Authority should go ahead with its bid.
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The 890 World Heritage Sites are “places of outstanding universal value to all humanity and are of great importance for the conservation of mankind's cultural and natural heritage.”
There are 28 sites in the UK including Durham Cathedral and Castle, Canterbury Cathedral, Ironbridge Gorge, Stonehenge, Blenheim Palace, the City of Bath, Tower of London, Palace of Westminister, Dorset and East Devon Coast, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape.
John Packman, Chief Executive of the Broads Authority, said: “The Broads is a very special area and we believe merits this international recognition. Our preliminary view suggests that the Broads would meet the UK criteria in three of the ten categories under which sites can be nominated.
“As a member of the UK's family of National Parks we are some distance there already.”
The Broads is already well supplied with management plans and surveys necessary to make a bid. This means that the normal costs involved in submitting a bid and then managing a World Heritage site would be considerably reduced. The Broads Forum, a committee of user groups, is supporting the proposal.
The World Heritage Convention was established in 1972 by UNESCO (United Nationals Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.) At the beginning of this year the Government decided to scrap its current “tentative list” and draw up a shorter list from which one would be selected each year for WHS nomination.
