According to Le Dauphine, the French, Swiss and Italian officials are engaged in the final stretch to begin the candidacy procedure for the Mont Blanc Massif for a coveted spot on UNESCO’s World Heritage Site list.
In the UNESCO World Heritage List there are several mountains whose exceptional natural value has been recognized. The Mont Blanc massif has unique characteristics for two reasons:
- it gathers on a small territory the main characters of the world's mountains;
- in the heart of an overpopulated Europe the Massif is a great educational setting; a privileged scientific laboratory that offers the longest range of data imaginable.
This Tuesday 24th October 2017, a cross-border meeting of the Mont Blanc Transboundary Conference is scheduled in Chamonix. For more information on the inscription of the Mont-Blanc Massif as cross-border natural heritage, visit the Unesco website.
With this meeting, the ONG WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature), which has been monitoring the application form for several months, hopes, through the voice of the general director of the branch Pascal Canfin, and Jean-Christophe Poupet, responsible for the programme "Alpes", a mobilization of the local actors.
Interview conducted by Le Dauphiné
Where has arrived the candidacy?
Pascal Canfin: " In the ongoing preparatory works, we have the feeling that this meeting will enable the formal launching of the candidacy for the classification of Mont Blanc at Unesco. It is a ranking that is important to us and we support this approach carried by the local elected representatives. We have never been so close to a formal launch with the agreement of the three countries.
What is WWF's commitment to this subject?
Pascal Canfin: "The Mont-Blanc is, in the world, the only one summit of a continent not to benefit from a protection status. This is a situation that is considered problematic for its environmental management and we want to put an end to this paradox.
Today, there is no device that makes all the actors who exercise an activity on this exceptional ecosystem, and at the same time fragile, put themselves around the table to discuss, reduce the impact, the pressures, better manage them, better coordinate equipment. We can not afford to wait any longer: Mont-Blanc is in danger, now is the time to act".
At our Swiss and Italian neighbors, where has arrived the candidacy procedure?
Jean-Christophe Poupet: "For the first time, the elected representatives of the three countries have agreed to jointly commit to the candidacy. We are on a mixed application "nature/culture", so each country will be able to contribute and make its contribution to the building according to the particularities of its territory.
