EXECUTIVE SUMMARY - UNESCO World Heritage

NOMINATION DOSSIER ANNEX 5.5
"ANCIENT BEECH FORESTS OF GERMANY"
Initially, the property has to be included in the German Tentative List in order to be nominated. The
“German Beech Forests” have already been included in said list (Tentative List as of 23 January
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2007), i.e. a crucial prerequisite for nomination has already been met. This was the starting signal for
the nomination including four Länder.
In addition, it is the responsibility of the federal states involved to draw up and submit the application
(= the nomination dossier) for the German beech forests to be inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage
List pursuant to the detailed specifications (format) in the aforementioned guidelines.
The collective German (extension) application for submission to the UNESCO (= nomination dossier)
is currently being prepared under the auspices of Thuringia, to the fullest extent and under severe
deadline pressure. The dossier is focused on proving the areas’ “outstanding universal value” (=OUV)
and the (ecologic) “integrity”. The nomination is exclusively based on criterion ix (= natural heritage).
Within the scope of the nomination dossier being drafted, a number of tasks – both on the part of the
participating federal states and the Federal Government – were assigned tasks that are nearing completion.
The individual results are to be joined, and final editing of the dossier text/contents is to take
place no later than by the end of September, because the draft of the nomination dossier is scheduled
for submission to the UNESCO for a first completeness check no later than by 30 September 2009.
This is an unsolicited inspection for completeness of the application documents. Any changes and additions
to the contents resulting both from the respective national and transnational process of coordination
(Ukraine and Slovak Republic) that follows are to be implemented subsequently. The complete
official application document is scheduled for submission to UNESCO by 01 February 2010 at the latest.
The entire nomination process requires a comprehensive coordinative effort with Ukraine and the Slovak
Republic, as the UNESCO application refers to an extension of the existing Carpathian Natural
World Heritage. Three trilateral meetings were held so far, in the scope of which the Ukrainian and
Slovak delegations not only agreed to support the German nomination, but also offered their active
assistance. A trilateral system to manage the projected transnational World Natural Heritage has been
drafted and put forward to Ukraine and the Slovak Republic for approval. In addition, a Memorandum
of Understanding between the ministries of the environment of the three countries Ukraine, Slovak
Republic, and Germany (in coordination with the participating federal states) was conceived on the
cooperation regarding the Natural World Heritage Beech Forests, which has not yet been approved by
Ukraine and the Slovak Republic.
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