UNESCO, a specialized United Nations agency that seeks to promote world peace and security through international cooperation, recommended adding Venice in Italy to the heritage danger list due to various factors.
The call was made over the potential "irreversible damage" that could fall on the area due to overwhelming tourism, overdevelopment, and rising sea levels brought about by climate change.
Venice on Heritage Danger List
The agency announced in an attempt to encourage the better preservation of the site for the future. A spokesperson for the Venice municipality released a statement saying that they will carefully review the proposal by the UN agency. They added that they would later discuss the issue with the Italian government.
Venice is also known as "La Serenissima," which can be translated to "very serene," a nickname many believe no longer fits the area. According to BBC, UNESCO is blaming the Italian authorities for their alleged lack of strategic vision in solving the problems that one of Italy's most picturesque cities is facing.
The UN agency's accusations are a major blow to Italian authorities, who have failed to protect the historic city and the surrounding lagoon. However, one of the city's former mayors has accused the international heritage agency of being one of the "most expensive and useless bodies on the face of the earth."
In a statement, Massimo Cacciari said that UNESCO passes judgment without knowledge and that the agency gives its opinions without thought, which they thought was better to disregard.
He added that the agency does not provide them with any funding to make changes, arguing that they only criticize. Venice's inclusion in the danger list for heritage sites was proposed by the UN agency two years ago. However, it was addressed with some emergency measures that the Italian government adopted.
Failure To Address the Issue
In a statement, UNESCO said that the situation was brought about by the effects of the continuing deterioration due to human intervention. According to The Guardian, it added that the combined effects of human-induced and natural changes resulted in the deterioration and damage to building structures and urban areas.
The agency's recommendation will be put to a meeting of its world heritage committee in Riyadh in late September for adoption. UNESCO's recommendation was made despite Italy, in 2021, successfully complying with the agency to ban cruise ships that weighed more than 25,000 tons from docking in the lagoon.
The agency also included other areas of the 1,157 World Heritage sites to be put on the danger list. These include the historic center of Odesa, Ukraine, Timbuktu in Mali, and several sites in Syria, Iraq, and Libya.
UNESCO added that the corrective measures that the Italian government recently proposed need to be more detailed to address the issue. Reuters said that the agency accused officials of not communicating in a sustained and substantive manner since the last committee session in 2021.
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