[Cultural and Historical Heritage] Shirakami-sannchi World Heritage Area Management Plan
Outline of the World Heritage Convention
 
  1. Designation:
    Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage

  2. Aim:
    To list the heritage sites that need protection and, to assist each nation's measures to protect heritage sites with the World Heritage Fund consisting of donations from member countries.

  3. Summary:
    Date of Adoption: 16 November 1972
    (17th UNESCO General Conference in Paris)
    Effective Date: 17 December 1975
    Member States: 142 nations (as of 1 September 1995)
    Major Signatories: United States of America, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, People's Republic of China, Japan
    World Heritage Sites: Currently, there are 440 properties (95 Natural, 326 Cultural, 17 Combined), e.g., Yellowstone National Park (USA) and the Pyramids (Egypt), listed on the 1994 UNESCO World Heritage List
    Secretariat: UNESCO

  4. Definitions of World Heritage:
    Cultural heritage: architectural works; monuments (sculpture and paintings); elements or structures of an archaeological nature, etc, which are of outstanding universal value from the point of view of history, art or science.
    Natural heritage: natural features consisting of physical and biological formations or groups of such formations, geological and physiographical formations and precisely delineated areas which constitute the habitat of threatened species of animals and plants, naturalists or precisely delineated natural areas of outstanding universal value from the perspective of aesthetics, science, conservation, or natural beauty.

  5. The details of the events surrounding the inscription of Shirakami-sanchi on the World Heritage List
    March 1990 Shirakami-sanchi Forest Ecosystem Reserve established.
    June 1992 The National Diet approved the World Heritage Convention.; the Government submitted a letter of acceptance of the Convention to the Secretariat
    July Designation of Shirakami-sanchi as a Nature Conservation Area
    September The above Convention came into effect in Japan
    October The Government nominated Shirakami-sanchi and Yakushima as candidates as Natural Heritage sites to the World Heritage Committee.
    May 1993 IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) conducted an area study.
    June The Bureau Session of the World Heritage Committee (Three recommendations given)
    September Japanese Government responded to the recommendations from the session of the Bureau
    December Decision at the World Heritage Committee meeting in Colombia to inscribe Shirakami-sanchi and Yakushima on the World Heritage List

This document is a preliminary English translation only. Any reader who seeks to understand formal policy and measures should refer to the original Japanese text.
 
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Ministry of the Environment Government of Japan