Can you imagine a time when there will be no more elephants on Earth, and when the only way you can see an elephant is actually seeing a picture in a book listing elephants as extinct? It sounds like a nightmare, well, at least to me. However, according to some recent reports, it is quite possible that in the next twenty years, planet’s elephants could become extinct. Elephants are not only magnificent and beautiful animals but they are believed to have complex intelligence and emotions. They laugh and cry and can use tools. So, do we want a world without elephants?

In a recent excellent article by Michael Tomasky in the Daily Beast, he discusses this very important subject and why this is happening. According to Tomasky, the lust and desire for ivory, especially by China and some other Asian countries including Japan, Thailand and Vietnam is driving the illegal poaching and the ivory trade between China and Africa. The vicious trade in ivory could lead to the extinction of the species in twenty years or even less. The number of elephants in Africa has gone from around 1 million to roughly half that in the last 35 years. And the population is falling even faster now according to Tomasky.

Many question the statistics. Last year BBC reported that an estimated 25,000 elephants were killed in 2011 and that the numbers for 2012 were actually higher. We first were alarmed in the 1980s about the rapid loss of elephants and as a result worldwide ban on the ivory trade was enacted by the United Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). It worked. Poaching fell off dramatically, and the black market price of ivory dropped. However, many countries in Africa including Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia were permitted a “one-off” legal sale of 108,000 pounds of ivory to Japan. Tusk weights vary a lot, but that’s maybe 1,400 dead elephants according to Tomasky. There was another “one-off” sale in 2002, and then in 2008, the big one: After some aggressive lobbying by China in particular, CITES approved a sale of 110 tons of African ivory to China and Japan (which split it 60 tons to 50, respectively) on the theory that legal sales of large ivory stockpiles might depress the price and thereby slow poaching. The opposite happened—China controlled the supply of legal ivory tightly, which meant the demand was being met by the illegal stock. Today, ivory prices are at record highs, having tripled since that 2008 auction, up to around $1,500 a pound.

Earlier this week the US National Public Radio (NPR), in a program featured a number of African heads of state speaking at the Africa summit hosted by the White House, about their need for “high-tech help” to fight the poachers. “When the four presidents were asked what they need from the United States, the answers revealed how militarily sophisticated the poachers have become,” reported NPR’s Gregory Warner (wrote Tomasky). “Namibia asked for light attack helicopters. Tanzania for night-vision goggles. Togo for infrared scanners to use at its port.”

So who is to blame? Well, according to the reports, everyone, including the US. Obama administration promised in 2008 to create effective enforcement systems for monitoring both tusks and worked ivory. However, it has done nothing. There is also lobbying against a ban for African elephant ivory and one of the major organizations is the National Rifle Association (NRA). It is because there’s ivory in some antique guns.

According to Allan Thornton, the head of the Environmental Investigation Agency, a Washington- and London-based nonprofit that conducts undercover investigations to expose environmental crimes; “They (the US government) really just didn’t have the political commitment to enforce anything,” Thornton says. The good news however is that pressure is building even inside China for a ban. For example, a new celebrity who has lent his name to the campaign is Yao Ming, the former NBA star who’s an icon in China.

Translated by WCHV

According to several news networks in Iran, two ancient heritage tablet dated back to the Sassanian period are in danger of being destroyed. The two inscriptions on the ancient tablets show the Sassanid king in his hunting grounds and shed light on the hunting rituals of the time. Heritage experts believe that the inscriptions have invaluable linguistics, historical, and anthropological significance.

The recent reports from Iran show that these priceless ancient tablets were found abandoned and dumped among piles of rubbish with no protection from the elements. In addition, these tablets are now in danger, vulnerable and could be taken by people who have no knowledge of ancient heritage. Threats to national heritage artifacts have been widely ignored in many places in Iran. About six years ago, thieves trying to steal some artifacts set up explosives at a site which fortunately did not create much damage.

As reported by many news outlets last week, the militants have blown up a revered Muslim shrine traditionally said to be the burial place of the prophet Jonah in Mosul. The residents said that the militants first ordered everyone out of the Mosque of the Prophet Younis, or Jonah, then blew it up.

The mosque which was renovated in the 1990s under Iraq‘s late dictator Saddam Hussein was built on an archaeological site dating back to the eighth century BC and is said to be the burial place of the prophet, who in stories from both the Bible and Qur’an is swallowed by a whale.

The mosque had remained a popular destination for religious pilgrims from around the world just until before the militants took over the city. It has also been reported that several nearby houses were also damaged by the blast.

The militants have been destroying many sites in Iraq in any area that they have taken over, and have also seized a large area expanding across the Iraq-Syria border.

After 15 years, the Philippines has successfully received inscription for another site to the World Heritage List of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Joining the five other UNESCO cultural and natural sites of the Philippines is the Mount Hamiguitan Range Wildlife Sanctuary in Davao Oriental, which is noted for its rich biodiversity. It is the first UNESCO heritage site for Mindanao.

However, fear of a new threat seems to be disturbing the preservation of this newly inscribed site. One of the issues the mountain is facing today is biological piracy which is now happening all over the world according to conservation experts. An incident that happened in 2005 reminds scientists that biological samples including plants could be transferred to another part of the world and propagated. In 2005, scientists entered another site in the Philippines and collected species samples. They then propagated and cultured the samples in Europe and that is why the Nepenthes hamiguitanensis is already thriving in Europe today. They’re still naming it as such but it is no longer endemic to the Philippines according to the reports by the officials. That is why today another province has restricted access by foreign scientists to Mt. Matalingahan, another Philippine natural site being considered for UNESCO heritage listing.

Mindanao was cited under Criterion 10 of the heritage list which is supposed to contain the most important and significant natural habitats for in-situ conservation of biological diversity, including those containing threatened species of universal outstanding value from the point of view of science or conservation. This criterion refers to the rarity of the site. According to the officials in the Philippines, the mountain has many site-endemic flora and fauna species. Nepenthes (pitcher plant) and certain butterfly species can only be found there. It is also home to the Philippine Eagle and Philippine Cockatoo.

The mountain was supposed to be inscribed last year during the World Heritage Convention in Cambodia but it lacked the required Visitors Management Plan. The document was completed and submitted in this year’s convention in Qatar. Owing to its rich biodiversity, access to Mount Hamiguitan is restricted to scientists and researchers. However, another adjacent location will be developed as the buffer zone for tourists to view the mountain from afar as reported by the news outlets.

Late last month (June 2014), the UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee added another twenty six new sites to the list of World Heritage Sites bringing the total number to 994.

One of these sites is Shahr-i Sokhta (Iran), meaning ‘Burnt City’ which is located at the junction of Bronze Age trade routes crossing the Iranian plateau.  The remains of the mud brick city represent the emergence of the first complex societies in eastern Iran. Founded around 3200 BC, it was populated during four main periods up to 1800 BC, during which time there developed several distinct areas within the city. These include a monumental area, residential areas, industrial zones and a graveyard. Changes in water courses and climate change led to the eventual abandonment of the city in the early second millennium. The structures, burial grounds and large number of significant artefacts unearthed there, and their well-preserved state due to the dry desert climate, make this site a rich source of information regarding the emergence of complex societies and contacts between them in the third millennium BC.

Late last month (June 2014), after a long wait, Myanmar received the approval to have one of its sites entered onto the World Heritage List by the UNESCO. The inscription of its first site, Pyu Ancient Cities, includes the remains of three brick, walled and moated cities of Halin, Beikthano and Sri Ksetra located in vast irrigated landscapes in the dry zone of the Ayeyarwady (Irrawaddy) River basin. They reflect the Pyu Kingdoms that flourished for over 1,000 years between 200 B.C and 900 A.D. The three cities are currently partly excavated archaeological sites. Remains include excavated palace citadels, burial grounds and early industrial production sites, as well as monumental brick Buddhist stupas, partly standing walls and water management features which are still in use today, and that underpinned the organized intensive agriculture.

Late last month (June 2014), several news outlets reported that documents reveal that 3,000 square km of the West Coast North Island Marine Mammal Sanctuary have been signed off for exploration permits and that the New Zealand government opens west coast block for oil and gas drilling.

The West Coast North Island Marine Mammal Sanctuary which is included in the block of land has been recognized to be home to the Maui’s dolphin. International conservation activists and organization like WWF (World Wildlife Fund), a charity organization have urged the New Zealand government to do more to save the dolphins and do not put them at a higher risk.
However, the Conservation Minister Nick Smith insisted recently that the block in question “is nowhere near where the Maui’s live,” after the issue was raised by the Green Party. Mr. Smith has also told the New Zealand Parliament that There hasn’t been a single observation of a Maui’s dolphin (in the area), and the oil and gas industry hasn’t been involved in a single Maui’s dolphin incident in Taranaki over the past 40 years despite 23 wells being drilled, according to Independent Newspaper.
The Maui’s dolphin is the world’s rarest and smallest dolphin. It is estimated that there are only 55 adult left off the west coast of New Zealand’s North Island as their numbers continue to be threatened by fishing and disease.

World heritage experts, Curators, and Iraqi officials have been calling for assistance from the US government and the world community to help and save Iraq’s national heritage and sites being destroyed by the militants while they are helplessly watching the destructions from a far.

Many archeologists and experts from around the world labored mightily to unearth the sites and discover details of the history over decades, however these sites are being destroyed as militants move through cities and different areas of Iraq. Nineveh and the nearby city of Mosul have witnessed much of the destruction. Images from social media appear to show the destruction of about a dozen places of worship across northern Iraq, in areas recently taken over by extremist militants. For example, the al-Qubba Husseiniya, a Shia shrine, was shown in one picture being blown up in the city of Mosul. However, the militants have attacked Shia and Sunni shrines alike, and have vowed to continue destroying places of worship which they do not approve of. The attack on heritage sites are not just on the Moslem sites. As reported by the Daily Beasts, the militants are also destroying a number of Christian churches.

One of the major concerns as reported by several news outlets, is that once again militants operations could become funded by the looting antiquities. In neighboring Syria a major source of revenue for one groups’ insurgency has been the sale of looted antiquities on the black market. As reported in The Guardian, a windfall of intelligence just before Mosul fell revealed that al-Baghdadi had accumulated a $2 billion war chest, in part by selling off ancient artifacts from captured Syrian sites.

As the UNESCO World Heritage Committee met in Qatar last month (June 2014) and added more sites to the World Heritage List, several natural sites were also inscribed on the World Heritage List. These sites even though located in different parts of the world, (they) are humanity’ Universal Natural Heritage. Here at WCHV’s website, we have tried to bring you the news about any destruction, contaminations, and/or changes brought about climate change, or by negligence to these beautiful and grand sites.

Last month, we also created our first brief video which we hope will be first of many videos about preservation and conservation of world heritage. This first video – http://worldculturalheritagevoices.org/new-video-behind-beaty/ – focuses on how our beautiful universal natural heritage has been affected and changed.

This year’s additions to natural sites on the World Heritage List include the Great Himalayan National Park located in India, Mount Hamiguitan Range Wildlife Sanctuary in the Philippines, and Okavango Delta, in Botswana among many others. According to UNESCO’s site, the delta in northwest Botswana comprises permanent marshlands which are seasonally flooded. It is one of the very few major interior delta systems that do not flow into a sea or ocean, with a wetland system that is almost intact. One of the unique characteristics of the site is that the annual flooding from the river Okavango occurs during the dry season, with the result that the native plants and animals have synchronized their biological cycles with these seasonal rains and floods.

For a complete list of all the sites added to the World Heritage List, visit http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/

Earlier this month, on June 15^th, 2014, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee met in Qatar and accepted application by several countries to have their national heritage sites to be inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.

It has been said that to explore a site on the list, is exploring outstanding universal values. These are locations which have witnessed and experienced human history, tradition and lives. There are today more than 1,000 sites to visit all over the world.

The recent additions include:

• Bolgar Historical and Archeological Complex, Russian Federation,
• Bursa and Cumalikizik, Turkey, the Birth Place of the Ottoman Empire
• Carolingian Westwork and Civitas Corvey, Germany
• Caves of Maresha and Bet-Guvrin in the Judean Lowlands, Israel
• Decorated cave of Pont d’Arc, limestone plateau of the Ardeche River France
• Erbil Citadel, Iraq
• Historic Jeddah, the Gate to Makkah, Saudi Arabia
• Monumental Earthworks of Poverty Point, USA
• Namhansanseong, Republic of Korea
• Palestine: Land of Olives and Vines –Southern Jerusalem, Battir, Palestine
• Pergamon and its Multi-Layered Cultural Landscape, Turkey
• Precolumbian Chiefdom settlements with stone spheres of the Diquis, Costa Rica
• Pye Ancient Cities, Myanmar
• Qhapaq Nan, Andean Road System in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile,Columbia, Equador, Peru
• Rani-ki-Vav (the Queen’s Stepwall) at Patan, Gujarat, India
• Shahr- I Sokhta (the Burnt City), emergence of first complex societies, Iran
• Silk Roads, the Routes Network of Chan-an0 Tianshan Corridor, China, Kazakhstan
• The Grand Canal, China
• The Vineyard Landscape of Piedmont, Lange-Roero and Monferrato, Italy
• Tomioka Silk Mill and Related Sites, Japan
• Van Nellefabrick, Netherlands