World Heritage Committee requests close surveillance of four sites

QUEBEC CITY, CANADA, July 10 (Xinhua) -- The World Heritage Committee has asked that "reinforced monitoring" be applied to four properties on UNESCO's World Heritage List.

The four sites are: Bordeaux, Port of the Moon (France), Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu (Peru), Timbuktu (Mali) and Samark and-Crossroads of Cultures (Uzbekistan), according to a press release issued by the 32nd session of the committee in Canadian Quebec City on Thursday.

Reinforced monitoring continues to be applied for seven other sites for which it was requested already in 2007. All seven are on the List of World Heritage in Danger: Dresden Elbe Valley (Germany), Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls, and five World Heritage sites of Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The committee made no changes to the List of World Heritage in Danger which still contains 30 sites.

Under the new monitoring mechanism, established by the World Heritage Committee in 2007, regular missions can be dispatched to World Heritage sites subjected to particular stress.

The purpose of the monitoring mechanism, which typically involves sending experts to examine developments in site, is to keep the committee informed of the situation on the ground on a regular basis and guide it in its actions.

The World Heritage Committee meets once a year, discussing whether a property is inscribed on the World Heritage List, and examining the protection of sites on the list.