The United Nations opened an annual meeting Sunday in South African city Durban to review global heritage conservation, focusing on Africa where nearly one fourth of current heritage sites are in danger.

The 29th session of the World Heritage Committee (WHC), under the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), is the first such meeting held in the sub- Saharan Africa since 1972, when the UNESCO approved a convention concerning the protection of the world cultural and natural heritage.

AFRICA UNDERREPRESENTED

Koichiro Matsuura, UNESCO director-general, said while the influence of African culture is truly global, sub-Saharan Africa, where the human race was widely believed to originated from, is still under-represented on the World Heritage List.

Only 63 properties in the region, or eight percent of the 788 properties around the world, have been inscribed on the prestigious list, Matsuura said at the opening ceremony in Durban's International Convention Center.

"There is ample scope for increasing the representation of African countries and African properties, both natural and cultural, on the World Heritage List," he told some 700 delegates from 180 countries.

He said African culture should be appreciated not only because of its specific character and diversity, and more importantly, the deepest roots of all cultures around the world lie in Africa since the first hominid was born in the continent.

The UNESCO chief also urged six sub-Saharan African countries which have yet to ratify the 1972 convention to do so.

The convention's 180 member countries elect 21 representatives to form the WHC, which designates sites around the world with outstanding cultural values or unique natural beauty and inscribes them on the World Heritage List.

To date, the convention protects 788 sites "of outstanding universal value" located in 134 member countries and includes 611 cultural sites, 154 natural and 23 mixed sites.

Even before the meeting was kicked off, an alarm has been sounded for Africa's state of heritage conservation.

"We will listen during this committee that 43 percent of the World Heritage in danger is in the African continent," Themba Wakashe, the incumbent WHC chairman, said on Sunday, adding he was "terribly alarmed" by the figure.

He blamed the situation on inadequate official support, lack of capacities and resources and sometimes inadequate conservation practices which are often "too expensive."

Timbuktu in Mali and 16 other African heritage sites are currently among 35 sites on the List of World Heritage in Danger, which face serious threat either from chemical or mining, pollution, pillaging, war, poorly managed tourism or poaching.

The WHC will organize a special event, called Partners for Africa, during the eight-day meeting to focus on Africa's heritage and the action taken by UNESCO partners to safeguard it.

An African World Heritage Fund is expected to be launched during the meeting with the purpose to better preserve highly- endangered cultural and natural sites in Africa.

Credibility of the list, conservation of the sites, capacity- building and raising awareness among the public and youth are among topics to be discussed.

The WHC will review 42 proposed sites for inscription on the World Heritage List during the meeting. Extensions for nine sites that have already been inscribed will also be proposed.

The proposed sites include 28 cultural sites, 10 natural sites and 4 mixed sites presented by 44 countries, including Albania, China and the host country South Africa.

Four countries, namely Bahrain, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Gabon and Moldova, could for the first time see one of their sites join the list. SOUTH AFRICA'S AMBITIONS

South Africa hopes to have one new site and two extensions of an existing site inscribed on the World Heritage List.

The Vredefort Dome in Free State Province was formed by a meteorite hitting the earth, thought to be the biggest meteorite strike yet known, and is regarded as valuable for scientific research.

Taung is where an early Hominid skull was discovered and the Makapans Valley is home to some of the earliest settlements in South Africa, which formed the Fossil Hominid Sites, known as the Cradle of Humankind.

Since ratifying the 1972 convention in 1997, South Africa is already home to six world heritage sites, a wide reflection of either South Africa's rich biodiversity, early African civilization or the struggle against the apartheid rule which did not end until the early 1990s.

Source: Xinhua