Reunion Island

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Monday 8 september 2008 19:31

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Reunion Island

The National Park, a candidate at the UNESCO

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- > Parque Nacional, candidato para la UNESCO
- > Le Parc national, candidat à l’UNESCO

If the National Park will celebrate its first birthday on the 5th March 2008, its manager intends well to celebrate its registration within the famous UNESCO World heritage site this year. It was listed and validated by the French Comité des Binesn on the 9^th January in Paris.

cirque de cilaos Discover Réunion Island amongst the Statue of Liberty in New-York in the United States and the Great Wall of China, isn't it a dream to find it listed amongst the 851 UNESCO natural heritage? A dream that could become a reality in this year 2008. It has officially registered on the 9th January.

Since 2002, Réunion Island wanted to register. This year, the French state, through the Ministry of Land and Environment decides to include in the famous list, that is, an inventory of properties that each state intends to register for the coming years, "the massive of la Fournaise," to sum up Réunion Island.

Being given due consideration by the executive organ, the committee of the World Natural Heritage Site, Réunion Island made its first step towards the registration. But, this first step is only a mere progress towards the ultimate end goal.

It's been more than two years that Gerard Collin has devised a thick registration project. The latter is a conservative of natural heritage and international consultant and an accustomed to this type of registration and besides he has the scientific supports of Patrick Bacherley, Dominique Strasberg and René Robert.

The endeavour of these men has been rewarded in November 2007: the committee of the French Bines validates the rule of registration in Réunion Island. The second step which consists in submitting the registration project has been done.

The experts in 2008, action in 2009

And then, at the beginning of the year 2008, the suggested heritage that should feature in the registration of the World Heritage site are evaluated by two separate advisory companies, appointed by the World Heritage Convention:

"le Conseil international des monuments et des sites (ICOMOS) and the "Union mondiale pour la nature" which respectively assess the suggested cultural and natural sites for registration.

The third advisory company is the "Centre international d'étude pour la preservation et la restauration des biens culturels (ICCROM), an intergovernmental organism which advised the board on the preservation of the cultural sites as well as on the training activities. The project was submitted on the 9^th January. Then the experts need to go to Réunion Island in 2008 and take action in 2009.

Text and photos
Véronique Tournier
January 2008

"Mountain Peaks, cirques, ramparts"

It's on this theme that the National Park represents Réunion Island in the UNESCO World's Heritage site while the island was included as "massive of la Fournaise. "As for volcanoes, there are many of them in the world, explains the President of the National Park, Daniel Gonthier. Although if ours are the most active one in the world, the mountain peaks, ramparts and cirques of Réunion Island are more distinctive features and should be brought into the limelight. It's this whole that consists the massive of La Fournaise that need to be boasted. We must not forget that UNESCO often pleads for representative sites."

The 32^nd French site?

The last French site registered in the Heritage Site is the Port de Lune in Bordeaux that already formed part in the cultural heritage since last year. There are 31 French sites in all. Regarding the overseas territories, the massive coral and the associated ecosystems of New Caledonia should form part of the UNESCO cultural heritage in July.

At the Indian Ocean level, the majestic hill of Ambohimanga and Tsingy Nature Reserve in Bemaraha in Madagascar are also registered in the list. The Aaparvasi Ghat in Mauritius has been registered in 2006. The Abadra atoll and Mai Valley Reserve in Seychelles have been classified. Perhaps Réunion Island should wait up to 2009 to be classified.