320. Memorandum From the Legal Adviser (Stevenson) to Secretary of State Rogers1 2
World Heritage Convention
I wish to bring to your attention a success for the Department of State in achieving an objective announced by President Nixon in his environmental message sent to the Congress in February 1971. The President had called on the nations of the world to agree to the principle that natural areas and cultural sites of unique significance should be treated as the heritage of all mankind and accorded special recognition and protection as part of a World Heritage Trust. A special meeting of government experts representing 60 nations and meeting in Paris from April 4-22, prepared a draft Convention for the Protection of the Cultural and Natural World Heritage. This Convention will be submitted to the UNESCO General Conference in October 1972 for approval and will be opened for signature at that time.
In the draft convention adopted by the UNESCO special committee, states parties would agree that certain natural areas and cultural sites are of out-standing universal value and form part of the world’s heritage. An international committee would draw up a World Heritage List of such areas and sites as well as a list of such properties threatened by serious and specific dangers. Each state would agree to take national measures to protect the world heritage located on its territory as well as to cooperate in international preservation activities. An international fund would be created, made up of voluntary contributions from governments and private sources, from which the international committee (to be known as the World Heritage Committee) would finance international assistance for the conservation and management of this heritage. The committee would give priority to assisting areas or sites in immediate danger.
[Page 2]Carl Salans headed the United States delegation at the Paris negotiations, in which the President’s Council on Environmental Quality, the National Park Service and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation were represented. I think it is generally agreed by these other agencies—and it was widely recognized at the UNESCO meeting—that because of State Department leadership, the United States delegation was able to overcome widespread resistance among other governments to many of our positions and, in the end, to achieve every single one of the objectives envisioned by President Nixon.
- Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Files 1970-73, SCI 41. Unclassified. Drafted by Salans on April 26.↩
- Stevenson reported that the World Heritage Convention, announced by President Nixon as an environmental objective, had been prepared by the representatives of 60 nations and would be submitted to the UNESCO General Conference in October 1972 for approval.↩