48 CONTEXT 180 : JUNE 2024 Chris Blandford is president of World Heritage UK. priority to reducing UK nomination numbers and addressing gaps on the world heritage list. The five new sites on the tentative list will be encouraged by the government to further develop their nomination dossiers. The bulk of the very considerable resources needed to progress each of the site nominations will still most likely continue to be the responsibility of local site promoters, agencies and stakeholders. The Flow Country and Gracehill candidate world heritage sites are currently in the Unesco evaluation process, with a decision on inscription due in September 2024. The preparation of a comprehensive nomination dossier by site promoters, its submission to the Unesco World Heritage Committee and subsequent evaluation by the committee’s expert advisory bodies (ICOMOS, IUCN and ICCROM) usually takes at least two years. Since the UK is now committed to submitting a nomination every two years, it is likely that only two or three sites out of the five on the tentative list will be brought forward for nomination in the next ten years, with perhaps the earliest next submission being in 2026 or 2027. The DCMS is the focal point for UK world heritage matters and communication with Unesco. The process and development of a nomination dossier includes technical assessment and checks by Historic England and other agencies on behalf of the DCMS. In addition, Unesco’s Operational Guidelines encourages an assessment of the suitability of world heritage candidates at an early stage. The DCMS can request annual ‘upstream’ advice from Unesco, including guidance on interim revisions or changes to the tentative list. The ‘preliminary assessment’ of individual draft nominations, now considered a mandatory part of the process by Unesco, is a thorough check of a draft nomination for outstanding universal value compliance and readiness prior to submission. The UK Tentative Review has established a new list, but it has also revealed some issues that could be usefully considered for any interim monitoring of the new list and the development of any future lists. The 2023 review, by taking a bottom-up approach to potential site selection for the new list, has responded only in part to the best-practice guidance by ICOMOS and Unesco, which recommends a combined top-down and bottom-up approach. Inevitably this has continued to result in a long list that reflects local desires, initiatives and strengths, rather than a national overview of all our heritage assets that may potentially have outstanding universal value. A screening of a comprehensive national inventory of cultural and natural heritage sites and assets (undesignated and undesignated) that are potentially of international and global significance needs to be undertaken. This will create a more rational and top-down preliminary listing for future tentative lists when they are established. The criteria for inclusion on such an inventory would need to reflect the wide-ranging and cross-cutting values that underpin the world heritage concept. Once established, the inventory would provide a more enhanced data baseline that would underpin a more consistent and combined approach to tentative list development. The 2019 national audit of UK world heritage sites, UK World Heritage: asset for the future⁵ highlighted that there continued to be very low awareness of the values and importance of world heritage at all levels, from local communities to politicians, and emphasised that this was a key challenge faced by the sector. It called for a national strategy and commitment for awareness-raising to enhance UK world heritage site conservation and sustainability. The applicants for the 2023 tentative review demonstrated this further in the huge differences in the quality of the applications and great variations in the understanding of the world heritage concept, values, nomination process and terminology. It was particularly obvious in the 61 per cent of expressions of interest that did not go forward to the long list for assessment. Although the review process included briefings and workshops, a longerterm programme of support, training and awareness-raising should be provided during future tentative listing processes. Most importantly, support will be needed during the nomination development period for all candidates on the 2023 list. World heritage status remains highly sought after across the world. The World Heritage Committee and others, however, remain rightly concerned that the increasing focus globally on implementing tentative lists and pursuing nominations is to the detriment of the responsibilities for management, monitoring and conservation of sites already inscribed. While the UK approach to establishing its tentative list may not be perfect, the UK has in part complied with Unesco’s call for nomination reduction and addressing gaps in the world heritage list. Following some ten years of limited investment in the UK world heritage sector, and increasing challenges to world heritage site conservation, increased support and resources are now critically needed from the UK government. This will ensure enhanced, balanced and sustainable management of the existing individual world heritage sites in the future and any others that may emerge from the new tentative list. 5 UK World Heritage, Asset for the Future: a review of the state of UK world heritage sites, independent report by World Heritage UK, 2019
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