CRI's reporter Shen Ting interviewed the Director General of UNESCO Koichiro Matsuura, who attended the opening ceremony of the session and talked about some hot issues concerning with the cultural and natural heritage protection around the world. Here's the report Shen Ting filed from Suzhou.

Director General Koichiro Matsuura says since the Convention Concerning the Protection of Cultural and Natural Heritages came into being in 1972, there have been a total of 754 sites all over the world being inscribed on the World Heritage List, with an ever-increasing public awareness of the heritage protection. However, the distribution of these world heritages appears imbalance geographically and the level of heritage protection is uneven between countries. The Director General says UNESCO is aimed to solve this problem in the near future.
 
"In fact one of the aims of UNESCO is to increase representatives around the world. We want more countries represented on the UNESCO's World Heritage List. We now have 129 member states having world heritage sites. But we have 178 members of the Convention. That means there are still 49 countries which do not have any heritage site. So we'll help them to make proposal, to prepare for the new inscription. We are also training professionals in these countries so that they would be able to prepare proposal and plans. In that way I wish the imbalance will diminish in the coming years. What is equally important is that we have to enhance cooperation, technical cooperation, financial cooperation to many developing countries which still do not have the capacity to safeguard their world heritage sites."

One of the new programs added to this year's session is the discussion of some heritage sites on the edge of extinction either because of natural erosion or human activities. General Director Koichiro Matsuura explains the background to the adding of this new program.

"We're proposing to the World Heritage Committee emergency inscription of Bam in Iran. I think you know the city of Bam was destroyed in the big earthquake last December, including the very old castle on top of the hill which was built 2,000 years ago. We believe it is important to inscribe all the castle of Bam as World Heritage site, and also to put it immediately on the world heritage list in danger. We will mobilize the international cooperation to help the reconstruction of the castle in Bam."

The development of tourism is also one of the most concerned topics, as it has brought some problems to the protection of cultural and natural heritages not only in China but also in other parts of the world. The General Director says some measures need to be taken to strike a balance between the tourism and the protection.

"We have to establish a balance between increased tourism and the protection of world heritage sites. Some think the more tourists, the better. But it is a limit to the number of tourists you could accept. And also you need to establish a management plan which will limit the movement of tourists.

On the efforts made by the Chinese government to the protection of world heritages, the General Director makes a high assessment and gives some suggestions for improvement in the future.

"I think China has a capacity to protect these sites. What's important is to get cooperation from local authorities and local people. It is important to establish a reliable management plan by the central government in cooperation with the local authorities. And that management plan must be implemented by the local authorities in cooperation with the local people."

The General Director says China presently owns the third most world heritage sites in the world, right after Spain and Italy. The experience China has gained in this area could be a good example for many other countries, especially the developing countries that have few or no heritage site on the World Heritage List. He wishes that China could get more involved in the international cooperation in the protection of world heritages.

Shen Ting, CRI news, Suzhou.