Silk Road, Chinese tea forest and Khmer empire sites vie for Unesco World Heritage status; war-battered Kyiv, tourist-swamped Venice risk downgrades

Unesco is meeting to update its World Heritage list, with 53 sites, from Khmer empire ruins to a Yunnan tea forest and stretch of Silk Road, vying for inclusion

Existing World Heritage sites such as Venice, swamped by tourists and rising seas, and war-battered Kyiv and Lviv in Ukraine, could be declared ‘at risk’

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Venice has suffered from overtourism and rising water levels in recent years, which could put its long-time Unesco World Heritage status at risk at this year’s meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 5:15pm, 11 Sep 2023Updated: 5:38pm, 11 Sep 2023

More than 50 world sites are hoping for inclusion on the United Nations’ coveted heritage list at a meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, this week, while some incumbents, including Venice and Kyiv, face the risk of a downgrade.

Unesco, the United Nations’ educational, scientific and cultural organisation, keeps the World Heritage list, which it says is a reflection of the planet’s cultural and natural diversity.

The agency meets once a year to update the list, inclusion on which is seen by many countries as crucial for tourism and the ability to source funding for the preservation of sites.

Conversely, countries are eager to avoid having their cultural treasures dropped from the list.

Dancers perform during the opening ceremony of the Unesco World Heritage Committee in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on September 10, 2023. Photo: AFP

Australia, for example, has recently made major efforts to avoid the exclusion of the Great Barrier Reef because of the government’s shortcomings in protecting the natural site, not least from the impact of climate breakdown and tourism.