EXECUTIVE SUMMARY - UNESCO World Heritage

NOMINATION DOSSIER ANNEX 5.1
"ANCIENT BEECH FORESTS OF GERMANY"
Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians (Slovak Republic/Ukraine) and Ancient Beech
Forests of Germany (Germany).
This option allows for retaining the name of the property already inscribed in the list.
The German delegation again pointed to the crucial issue that the Slovak Republic and
Ukraine have to agree officially to the German extension of the World Heritage Property
Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians in time before the nomination dossier is
submitted. In its 2011 Committee Session – Draft Nomination Completeness Check, the
UNESCO World Heritage Centre expressly mentioned this (quote: "As this nomination is an
extension to a transnational property, its submission will have to be accompanied by an
official letter by the authorities of both Ukraine and Slovakia granting their permission to
extend the already inscribed property."). The World Heritage Centre submitted the abovementioned
completeness check on 5 November 2009 to the German UNESCO Ambassador.
The German delegation reported that it had asked the German UNESCO Ambassador, as
had been agreed at the trilateral meeting in November 2008, to deal with this topic through
diplomatic channels and sound out whether there was a possibility for a joint cover note as
an alternative to separate letters granting permission. The Ukrainian delegation is of the
opinion that the Ukrainian Ministry of Environmental Protection should request the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs and the national UNESCO Commission to grant their permission. The
prerequisite for this would be a corresponding letter from Germany. The Slovak delegation
went along with this view.
Furthermore, the status of the MoU was discussed. The BMU/Germany submitted a draft in
May 2009 at expert level to the Slovak and Ukrainian Environment Ministries, which had
been reviewed with regard to international law by the Federal Foreign Office. It was
requested that Germany would be permitted to send this version of the MoU to the ministers
for signing. The Slovak Environment Ministry agreed to the request, the Ukrainian ministry
has not agreed so far. The Ukrainian delegation explained that they had carried out an
interministerial coordination for the MoU. The result of this coordination was that it was
considered necessary for Germany to make a statement about financial contributions to the
trilateral cooperation. The Ukrainian delegation requested that the German colleagues
submit another written request concerning the MoU at minister level, also in view of the new
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