The list of World Heritage in danger does not include Ha Long Bay.

On December 24, the Department of Cultural Heritage (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism) informed the press about the content of Reuters news agency reporting that UNESCO will deploy a team of experts to conduct a field survey in Ha Long Bay to further strengthen protection measures for this site. Accordingly, the Department of Cultural Heritage said that among the 56 World Heritage Sites currently on the List of World Heritage Sites in Danger, Ha Long Bay is not included.

Among the 56 World Heritage Sites on the List of World Heritage in Danger, Ha Long Bay is not included.

The Department of Cultural Heritage also affirmed: "Vietnam has never had any world heritage listed in the List of World Heritage in Danger up to now," the Department of Cultural Heritage affirmed.

According to information from the Department of Cultural Heritage, on December 20, 2024, Reuters reported that UNESCO will deploy a team of experts to conduct a field survey in Ha Long Bay to further strengthen protection measures for this site. This is one of the contents that the Vietnamese delegation attending the 46th Session of the World Heritage Committee from July 21 to 31, 2024 discussed and agreed with the UNESCO World Heritage Centre and the World Conservation Union (IUCN), the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS).

The annual meeting of the World Heritage Committee and the 46th Session focused on discussing a number of main contents such as: Periodic assessment of the protection status of World Heritage Sites - as part of the monitoring process (including Ha Long Bay), assessed based on the conservation status reports of World Heritage Sites sent by Member States to UNESCO before each annual meeting of the World Heritage Committee.

At the same time, consider the dossier of nomination of new World Heritage; global strategy on the World Heritage List; evaluate the Periodic Report and some other contents on the Strategy for building human resources for world heritage, on the list of planned world heritage dossiers, adjust the world heritage protection zones of some countries, the list of endangered world heritage, finance and preparation for the next Session.

Regarding specific content, at the 46th Session in 2024, the World Heritage Committee examined reports on the state of conservation of 123 World Heritage sites, including 56 World Heritage sites on the List of World Heritage in Danger.

"Vietnam has never had any world heritage listed in this list up to now," the Department of Cultural Heritage affirmed.

Regarding the nomination dossier for new world heritages, the 46th Session of the World Heritage Committee recognized 24 new world heritages. Accordingly, to date, there are 1,223 world heritages worldwide, including 952 world cultural heritages, 231 world natural heritages, and 40 mixed world heritages.

The World Heritage Committee has decided to remove the Niokolo-Koba National Park (Senegal) from the List of World Heritage in Danger and to add the Monastery of Saint Hilarion/Tell Umm Amer (Palestine) to the List of World Heritage in Danger, due to threats to the property from the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip.

Thus, up to now, there are still 56 World Heritage sites on the List of World Heritage in Danger.

Also according to the Department of Cultural Heritage, regarding Ha Long Bay, from the 45th Session of the World Heritage Committee in 2023, recommendations were made on the conservation and promotion of the value of this heritage. Through monitoring heritage conservation activities and Vietnam's reports, the 46th Session of the World Heritage Committee made 8 recommendations on the conservation of the World Heritage Ha Long Bay - Cat Ba Archipelago, specifically:

In the first four recommendations, UNESCO affirmed that it had reviewed and approved Vietnam's report on Ha Long Bay - Cat Ba Archipelago, including the report on the state of conservation and the establishment of an effective coordination mechanism between Quang Ninh province and Hai Phong city to ensure integrated management of the heritage.

In the fifth recommendation, UNESCO noted that the control of project implementation in heritage protection areas requires heritage impact assessment according to the guidelines of the 1972 UNESCO Convention... Specifically, construction projects must be assessed on the suitability of the project's impact on the outstanding universal value of the heritage according to UNESCO's guidelines for assessing world heritage impacts.

Recommendation 6: UNESCO recognizes and appreciates Quang Ninh province in implementing synchronous measures to solve the problem of waste and environmental pollution to maintain air and water quality within permissible limits. However, attention should still be paid to controlling water pollution.

Recommendation 7: UNESCO requests submission to the World Heritage Centre of a detailed zoning map of the Ha Long Bay - Cat Ba Archipelago World Heritage Site, after the Ha Long Bay World Heritage Site is expanded to include the Cat Ba Archipelago.

Recommendation 8 is to invite a UNESCO feedback monitoring mission to assess the overall status of heritage conservation, especially heritage management and the effectiveness of heritage protection management organizations.

In particular, during the 46th Session of the World Heritage Committee, Director of the World Heritage Center Lazare Eloundou Assomo considered Vietnam as a model of cooperation with UNESCO and UNESCO's Advisory Bodies and a typical case of world heritage conservation.

He highly appreciated Vietnam's continued research on the unique cultural values ​​of Ha Long Bay - Cat Ba Archipelago to build a dossier and supplement cultural criteria for Ha Long Bay - Cat Ba Archipelago, and will continue to accompany and support Vietnam in this research content.

Accordingly, UNESCO pledged to continue supporting Vietnam in building and promoting heritage dossiers that Vietnam proposed in the coming time.

The Department of Cultural Heritage emphasized that in the coming time, when the UNESCO Expert Team comes to conduct a field survey in Ha Long Bay as reported by Reuters, we need to closely follow the recommendations of the Field Inspection Team to explain and absorb the advice and comments of the UNESCO Expert Team in the work of protecting Ha Long Bay, as well as Vietnam's wishes in continuing to research and supplement cultural values, especially the potential cultural and historical values ​​of Ha Long Bay with the archaeological cultures of Soi Nhu - Cai Beo - Ha Long, moving towards preparing a dossier to nominate Ha Long Bay - Cat Ba Archipelago as a World Heritage Site with additional cultural criteria according to the regulations in the Guidelines for the implementation of the World Heritage Convention.

Source: https://baovanhoa.vn/van-hoa/danh-sach-di-san-the-gioi-bi-de-doa-khong-co-vinh-ha-long-116504.html