Freeway - Artikelns namn

It’s an honour for the country to have a World Heritage

What have the High Coast in Sweden, in common with the Great Barrier Reef and the Great Wall of China? The answer is that they all are World Heritages. This stretch of coast is Northern Europe only geological World Heritage, in the same class as Grand Canyon.

To be chosen to a Nature- or Cultural Heritage, you must live up to the general criterion "of unique universal value" And fulfil at least one of these kriterier:
· Geology
· Ecology
· Beauty of nature
· Biological multitude and possibly threated sorts.

Cultural Heritage: Memorial, groups of buildings or environment - work created by the man or the nature and the man in union. One example in Sweden is the ringwall round Visby on Gotland.

Nature Heritage: Nature phenomenon, nature environment or defined demarcated nature territories of a big universal value. One example in Sweden is the High Coast.

A mixture of both is Laponian Area in Lappland.

Take care of your World Heritage The World Heritage List has 690 World Heritage in 122 countries. (We have 11 in Sweden.) 529 are Cultural Heritage, 138 are nature environment and 23 are a mixture of both. It’s an honour for the country to have a such unique place. The purpose with the World Heritage List is to show at and protect worlds unique Nature- and Cultural territories. It’s very important that we take care of our World Heritage at a good way, or else you can get on "the black list." "The black list" or threatening World Heritage is a warning for the country to attend to, protect or preserve the World Heritage, that it could be in danger.

UNESCO UNESCO is an abbreviation of United Nations Educational Scientific Organisation. UNESCO is FN:s organ for education, science and culture. Their task is to chose and protect important culture- and nature historical places and properties that these preserves like they are today. Some places and objects who have been choose by UNESCO when the country is too poor to take care of their own World Heritage. These countries gets economic and practical support by the other nations who had signed on the agreement. These rules are in force if a World Heritage has been damage by a war.

We live in a World Heritage - The High Coast The 29 November 2000 the World Heritage committee made a decision to put the High Coast on the list.

The High Coast is the name between the area of Härnösand, Kramfors and Örnsköldsvik, a region where the hilly landscape of Ångermanland meets the Gulf of Bothnia.The area covers 142.500 ha including a marine component of 80.000 ha, which includes a number of offshore. The landscape as a whole is greatly influenced by the comparatively rapid rate of land uplift, currently eight mm/ year. During the last Ice Age, 9600 years ago, an ice sheet depressed Scandinavia with a thickness of up to three km. The centre of depression, ca. 800 m deep, was located in the High Coast area. The highest shore marks are situated at ca. 285 m

above current sea level, which is outstanding. We who live in the High Coast region have visible evidence of rising land and changing shorelines. Older boathouses are now situated far from shore. Bays and channels are becoming shallower. Old maps and nautical charts are no longer valid. In a broader perspective it’s fascinating to image that the shingle field stretching along the shorelines of today will one day in the future be situated high up on a hillsides. The High Coast is a geologically unique region.

Do you have any World Heritage sites close to you?