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Date: 13 August 2010
Local Chinese community thanks BU academic for helping to secure World Heritage status for the Danxia landscapes of southern China.
A Bournemouth University academic has been praised by the local Chinese community after helping to successfully secure World Heritage status for the striking red sandstone Danxia landscapes of the southern part of China.
Chris Wood said: “This morning I received a thank you note from Zhejiang Province, one of the six Danxia nominating provinces, which starts ‘On behalf of 60 million Zhejiang people we wish to thank you…’”
Chris Wood, senior lecturer in Heritage Conservation at Bournemouth University, played a leading part in the development of the nomination. Chris was scientific adviser to the sponsoring consortium of six Chinese provinces.
The nomination took 4 years to complete and, together with the provision of new on-site management infrastructure, cost around $200 million.
Inscription on the World Heritage List acknowledges the outstanding world importance of the scenic and geological values of China's Danxia landscapes. The new additions represent six of the best of many hundreds of Danxia sites throughout China.
The rocks of the Danxia landscapes are vivid red and developed on Cretaceous continental conglomerate and sandstone deposits. The six sites were carefully selected because each has a different set of landforms, representing a subtly different landscape. The whole series superbly illustrates different stages in the reduction of these remarkable mountain blocks through fluvial (water) erosion.
Dr Wood was immensely pleased with the Committee's decision, stating that "while inscription celebrates one of the most visually-stunning landscape types in the world, it will also generate immense pride and provides substantial economic and social benefits for the communities that live in and around the inscribed Danxia sites."
The good news came at the UNESCO World Heritage Committee meeting held in Brazil at the end of July, where World Heritage status was also granted to another nomination Chris has advised on – the Cirques and Pitons of Reunion Island, a volcanic island located in the Indian Ocean.
Elsewhere, the Everglades National Park was added to the Danger List, but sadly a decision to inscribe Charles Darwin’s ‘Downe House’ at Downe in Kent was deferred.
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