Endangered World Heritage Sites

As of this Monday (26.08.2013) the Waldschlösschenbrücke in Dresden is open to traffic. The construction of the bridge over the River Elbe led to Dresden's Elbe valley being stripped of its UNESCO designation as a World Heritage Site - the first cultural site to have its title revoked in this way. The area's unique river landscape had been irrevocably damaged, UNESCO says.

Two years earlier, the UNESCO committee had removed a wildlife reserve in the Omani desert from another World Heritage category: its list of natural heritage sites. Oman had decided to reduce the area of its nature reserve by 90 percent. The list of World Heritage Sites is governed by the 1972 Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage.

189 countries signed the convention, agreeing to protect their cultural and natural heritage sites. Revocation is damaging primarily to a country's image. World Heritage Sites are popular tourist destinations - Jerusalem among them. The preservation of Jerusalem's Old City as a World Heritage site is in question on account of its unresolved legal status.

World Heritage Sites are proposed by the countries in which they are located. The relevant UNESCO committee then decides on their status. In 1988, the committee added the mosques, mausoleums and cemeteries of Timbuktu to their list, but since 2012, Timbuktu is in danger of losing its World Heritage Site status. The region is affected by armed conflict.

Additions to the World Heritage's red list require approval from two-thirds of the UNESCO committee. Once sites are added, UNESCO urges governments to do more to protect them. The international community is also called upon to help preserve heritage sites with financial, technological and political assistance. Illegal logging is currently threatening the banks of the Rio Platano in Honduras.

At Abu Mena in Egypt, rising groundwater resulting from an irrigation project destroyed the foundations of the monastery ruins. As a result, UNESCO placed the heritage site on its red list in 2001. Abu Mena first received the world heritage distinction in 1979.

Sad but true: Most cases of world heritage destruction are due to people's conscious decisions. That is true in the case of the archeological treasures that dot Afghanistan's Bamiyan Valley. The Taliban demolished the famous Buddha statues there in 2001, leading to recesses that threatened further collapses nearby. Landmines placed in parts of the valley have created the danger of explosions.

The statue of Saladin located in front of the Citadel of Damascus is a relic from a peaceful era. It has occupied its current place since 1993. Meanwhile, the ancient city has been left largely in ruins due to street fighting related to the country's civil war. It was placed this year on UNESCO's red list. UNESCO gave Damascus' ancient city world heritage status in 1979.

Needless to say, the threat isn't quite as dramatic in Liverpool as it is in Damascus. But, as in the case of Dresden, it's a construction project - Liverpool Waters - that is endangering the status of the British city's historic harbor. Critics fear that proposed buildings would change the shape of central parts of the city and disturb the historic character of the docks.

It was also a construction project in Iraq that caused Ashur to be placed on UNESCO's red list in 2003, the same year it was made a heritage site. The historic archeological excavation sites faced security threats due to the construction of the Makhul Dam project, which has since been cancelled. The security issues have yet to be resolved, however.

Belize's coast along the Caribbean is home to the world's second largest barrier reef system, after Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Belize's reef, a world heritage site, also has human actions to thank for its placement on the red list. Large-scale mangrove deforestation has endangered the reef system.

This national park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo landed on UNESCO's red list as early as 1994. A wave of refugees fleeing the Rwandan genocide that year led to threats to the park's nature reserves. Armed conflicts continue there today, and rebels kill off great apes from the local populations to sell their meat and buy weapons.