EXECUTIVE SUMMARY - UNESCO World Heritage

NOMINATION DOSSIER ANNEX 5.1
"ANCIENT BEECH FORESTS OF GERMANY"
important future priority of the trilateral cooperation. Both delegations highlighted the
significance of socio-economic factors for conserving the World Heritage Property. The
delegation from the Slovak Republic emphasised their view that it was crucial to involve the
local population and to convey the special value of the beech forests which form the World
Heritage Property. In addition, the delegation from Ukraine presented their priorities for the
future trilateral cooperation and proposed adopting a work programme.
The German delegation reported on the current status of work for the nomination of the
German cluster of outstanding beech forests, which is planned as an extension to the
Slovakian-Ukrainian UNESCO Word Natural Heritage Property Primeval Beech Forests of
the Carpathians:
the nomination file will be submitted to the World Heritage Centre by 1 February 2010; the
Committee will probably make its decision at its 34 th meeting in 2011. It was agreed that it
should be sorted out with the UNESCO ambassadors of the three countries, how the Slovak
Republic and Ukraine will formally agree to the extension of a German beech forest cluster.
In addition, the delegations from Ukraine and the Slovak Republic recommended that the
German nomination should preferably base the justification for the Outstanding Universal
Value for an inscription on the World Heritage List on criterion (ix) of the Operational
Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention, as this was the criterion
under which the Slovakian-Ukrainian beech forests property were inscribed on the list.
During the deliberations, the Ukrainian and Slovakian representatives were open-minded
towards adding Romanian and Polish components to the World Heritage Property in the
future. Furthermore, the Slovakian delegation informed that there were no current plans to
nominate additional sites so that the German nomination would not be delayed. In this
context the Ukrainian delegation confirmed that it would give priority to supporting the
German additional components and decide on further additions (possibly also on Ukrainian
territory) at a later time.
The meeting also discussed how the trilateral cooperation should be shaped in future. All
parties agreed that two levels of cooperation seem necessary: a) a trilateral working group
which should be structured in the same way as the two trilateral meetings and b) a level of
experts.
The delegations designated the following focal points for future cooperation:
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