The Conclusion of the Regional Workshop held in Aqaba on Natural and Mixed World Heritage Sites in the Arab States
The Regional Workshop on Natural and Mixed World Heritage Sites in the Arab States: Listing Implications and Synergies with IUCN’s Green List was held in Aqaba, Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, with wide Arab participation. The workshop concluded on 24 January 2024.
The workshop was organized by the Arab Regional Centre for World Heritage (ARC-WH) in collaboration with the Regional Office for West Asia of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). It was held over the course of three days in cooperation with the Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority (ASEZA), with the participation of heritage professionals from various Arab countries.
During the workshop, the exceptional global importance of natural heritage sites was highlighted, along with effective ways to protect and manage them through the IUCN Green List. Multiple sessions addressed topics such as natural and mixed World Heritage, requirements for the Tentative List of World Heritage, and the development of nomination files.
The workshop also included a field visit to Wadi Rum, a mixed World Heritage site, to emphasize the importance of preserving these unique natural sites. The focus was on the Green List initiative and the importance of achieving effective results in preserving World Heritage sites.
Preserving natural heritage in the Arab world is extremely vital, especially since these sites represent a minority of Arab heritage types listed by UNESCO. Several Arab countries have successfully registered sites with natural value on the List, such as Wadi Rum in Jordan, a mixed site known for its exceptional geological and biological diversity; Socotra Archipelago in Yemen, with its unique biological diversity and distinctive ecosystem, ‘Uruq Bani Ma’arid, a spectacular desert landscape, Wadi Al-Hitan in Egypt, recognized by UNESCO as one of the best global sites for fossilized whale remains. Other sites can be explored through the World Heritage Centre platforms.
