How are World Heritage sites chosen?

A position on the prestigious Unesco World Heritage list is highly coveted, including by Malaysia, which already has four sites.

These world heritage sites are legally protected by an international convention and are recognised for having cultural, historical, scientific or other forms of significance.

Malaysia’s two cultural world heritage are the archaeological heritage of the Lenggong Valley and the historic cities of Malacca and George Town while our natural world heritage are the Gunung Mulu National Park and Kinabalu Park.

The country is actively trying to get more sites registered under Unesco, with the latest submission in 2021 being the Niah National Park in Sarawak.

The Sarawak Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Minister Datuk Seri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah previously said they expect the Niah National Park to be listed as a Unesco World Heritage site by this year.

But how exactly are Unesco World Heritage sites selected?

International Council on Monuments and Sites (Icomos) Malaysia president Tiong Kian Boon says the main criterion is whether the site has outstanding universal values.

“Universal is the keyword in that it applies to anybody irrespective of race, country and background.”

He points to Malacca and George Town, which were found to have world heritage value because they were trading ports in the past and played significant roles in the history of the spice trade.

“Out of that became a unique urban form like the shophouses of Malacca.

“Malacca has the antecedents of the Dutch, all the way up to the British, and then the British brought it to Penang, then that becomes of world significance.”

According to the Unesco website, sites must not only be of outstanding universal value, it must also meet at least one out of ten selection criteria.

The process of determining whether sites fulfil the criteria of being a world heritage site can take many years.

Tiong says it is up to the state’s authorities to bring up their nomination of sites to Unesco because usually, it can be very costly to create a dossier to send to Unesco.

“Once nominations are brought up to Unesco, they send it all over the world and then people will review it according to their expertise,” he explains.

The sites may make it onto the tentative list and eventually, as the years go on, Tiong says there will be a final nominated list that makes it for discussion.

So far, he says it is confirmed that the Niah National Park submission will go to the discussion stage.