Seville, June 26th 2009. UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee unanimously voted in favour of including nine areas of the Dolomites in the World Heritage List, as a “serial property”. The "pale mountains" have been awarded the World Heritage status, which probably represents something like a Nobel Prize for landscapes. What does this mean? What opportunities does it bring and what responsibility does it imply for the territory, the region and the people living in the Dolomites?

Experts will try to answer these questions while illustrating how a suitable use of this appellation could help towards sustainable regional development.

In 1972, UNESCO adopted the World Heritage Convention - an international convention to protect the world’s cultural and natural heritage. The World Heritage “label” enjoys world wide attention and is very popular. Up to date there are 911 World Heritage sites around the world, divided into 704 cultural, 180 natural and 27 mixed sites. Italy has 42 cultural and 3 natural sites included in the List (Dolomites, Aeolian Islands, Monte San Giorgio).

Further information about the UNESCO World Heritage Dolomites you'll find on the official webpage...

The Department for Nature and Landscape of the Autonomous Province of Bolzano-South Tyrol (www.provinz.bz.it/natur) is in charge of South Tyrol’s Nature Parks and is responsible for the sustainable development of the landscape in this province.

The inclusion in UNESCO’s World Heritage List of the four Dolomites Nature Parks - that is Tre Cime/Drei Zinnen (former “Dolomiti di Sesto/Sextner Dolomiten”), Fanes-Senes-Braies/Fanes-Sennes-Prags, Puez-Odle/Puez-Geisler and Sciliar-Catinaccio/Schlern-Rosengarten with the massif Latemar, as well as the Natural Monument Bletterbach is a recognition of the many years of efforts devoted to the protection, preservation and enhancement of this unique landscape.