UNESCO inscribes 24 new World Heritage sites

China's Tusi Chieftain Sites apply for inclusion on the 2015 World Heritage List this March. The representative sites consist of Yongshun Tusi Site in China's central Hunan Province, Tangya Tusi Site in Hubei Province and Hailongtun Site in Guizhou Province. The Tusi Sites are unique to the Tusi system, a self-ruled political system adopted by feudal Chinese emperors to manage ethnic minority regions by allowing local tribal leaders to rule their tribes on the basis of both the empire's law and local customs. [Photo/Xinhua]

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Committee concluded its annual meeting in Bonn, Germany, on Wednesday after inscribing 24 new sites into the World Heritage List.

In the past 10 days, over 2,000 delegates from around 160 countries gathered at the western German city of Bonn, examined nominations of new heritage sites and reviewed the state of conservation of sites already in the heritage list.

Out of the 36 sites that were examined this year, 24 sites were granted world heritage status for their "outstanding universal value", increasing the total number of world heritage sites to 1,031.

China's Tusi Sites, remains of tribal domains in southwest China whose hereditary rulers were appointed by ancient China's central government as "Tusi", became the country's 48th world heritage during the meeting, keeping China as the second biggest country of world heritage after Italy.

Other new sites include the Champagne hillsides, houses and cellars in France, the Forth Bridge in Scotland, San Antonio Missions in the United States of America, and Blue and John Crow Mountains in Jamaica, the country's first world heritage.

Jing Feng, the World Heritage Center's Asia and Pacific unit chief, said as the number of world heritage sites increased, the United Nations was under pressure to oversee and support the conservation of heritage sites with its limited resources.

According to him, the World Heritage Committee was considering to tighten the quota of new heritage sites. The maximum number of nominations to be examined each year would be reduced to 25 from the current level of 45.

"Countries should make sufficient comparative studies, and nominate best of the best," he said.

During the meeting that opened on June 28, the UNESCO also urged protection of world heritage sites from threat of intentional destruction, especially in the Middle East, and natural disasters, calling intentional attacks against world heritage "war crimes".

Three sites in Yemen and Iraq were listed as endangered world heritage due to damages or threat from the ongoing armed conflicts in the two countries.

The World Heritage Committee also announced on Wednesday that its next annual meeting will be held in Istanbul, Turkey, from July 10 to July 20 in 2016.