List of World Heritage Sites in Africa

List Of World Heritage Sites In Africa

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has designated 129 World Heritage Sites in Africa. These sites are located in 37 countries (also called "state parties"); Ethiopia is home to the most with nine sites, and twelve countries have only a single site each. Three sites are shared between two countries: the Mount Nimba Strict Nature Reserve (Côte d'Ivoire and Guinea), the Stone Circles of Senegambia (The Gambia and Senegal) and the Mosi-oa-Tunya / Victoria Falls (Zambia and Zimbabwe). The first sites from the continent were inscribed in 1978, when the Island of Gorée of Senegal and the Rock-Hewn Churches of Ethiopia were chosen during the list's conception.

Each year, UNESCO's World Heritage Committee may inscribe new sites on the list, or delist sites that that no longer meet the criteria. Selection is based on ten criteria: six for cultural heritage (i–vi) and four for natural heritage (vii–x). Some sites, designated "mixed sites," represent both cultural and natural heritage. In Africa, there are 83 cultural, 41 natural, and 5 mixed sites. Several efforts have been devoted to increasing the number of sites and preserving the heritage of existing sites on the continent; for example, on 5 May 2006, the African World Heritage Fund was launched by UNESCO to target the region of Sub-Saharan Africa. It planned to protect the sites by hiring personnel for state parties to maintain national inventories of existing sites, as well as to "prepare nomination dossiers for inscription onto the World Heritage List." Grants were also destined to help the " and management of heritage properties in general" and to rehabilitate properties in danger. The drive was initially funded by South Africa with US$3.5 million, and, as of March 2011, has amassed $4.7 million from various countries, with an additional $4.1 million in pending pledges. UNESCO has also attempted to increase awareness of African human origin sites in Ethiopia, with a goal of conserving and protecting the areas from further deterioration.

The World Heritage Committee may also specify that a site is endangered, citing "conditions which threaten the very characteristics for which a property was inscribed on the World Heritage List." Along with other World Heritage Sites, sites in danger are subject to re-evaluation by the committee every year at their "ordinary sessions". Africa has the highest percentage of sites on the danger list with seventeen, accounting for 13% of the African sites and 44% of the 39 endangered sites worldwide, and the Democratic Republic of Congo is the only country to have more than two sites inscribed. Sites in Africa have been marked as such for a variety of reasons, such as deforestation and hunting, civil war, threats to and hostage taking of reserve staff, oil and gas projects and mining, declines in biodiversity, and structural damage to buildings. Three sites were formerly declared as being in danger, but have since lost the status: the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (1984–1989), the Rwenzori Mountains National Park (1999–2004), and Tipasa (2002–2006). The Garamba National Park and Timbuktu have also lost their statuses in 1992 and 2005, respectively, but later regained it in 1996 and 2012. Despite its large number of endangered sites and the circumstances surrounding them, African World Heritage Sites have never been stripped of their title, something that has only occurred twice.