Ohrid, 8 July 2025 (MIA) -- At its 47th session taking place in Paris on July 6-16, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee has requested that the Ohrid region be inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger, MIA's Ohrid correspondent reports.

The request is due to the prolonged deterioration of the Ohrid region's cultural and natural heritage attributes required to demonstrate its outstanding universal value.

In its draft decision, the World Heritage Committee says the inadequate enforcement of regulations and the limited implementation of conservation actions continue to leave the region in a highly vulnerable state.

"The 2024 Reactive Monitoring mission confirmed this severe extreme vulnerability," it says. North Macedonia's efforts to reduce and remediate adverse impacts remain slow, leading to "irreversible degradation," it adds.

In the document, the World Heritage Committee concludes that "cumulative and ongoing impacts – including urban development, spatial planning deficiencies, inappropriate interventions, eutrophication of the lake, large-scale infrastructure, and other projects – have caused serious deterioration of the key attributes conveying the property’s outstanding universal value, resulting in irreversible degradation unless decisive action is taken."

In line with UNESCO's operational guidelines, it adds, the conditions for the Ohrid region's inscription on the List of World Heritage in Danger have been met.

According to UNESCO on its website, inscribing a site on the List of World Heritage in Danger allows the World Heritage Committee to allocate immediate assistance from the World Heritage Fund to the endangered property.

World Heritage Committee sessions are notable for the adoption of new world heritage sites as well as delisting sites that are not fulfilling their commitments. mr/