Under the warm Indian sun, where the vibrant colours of New Delhi are matched by the bustle of the streets, a small corner of Scotland’s future is set to be determined. It’s where the 46th Session of the World Heritage Committee will gather in a few weeks’ time for ten days of intense talks and crucial decisions. On a busy agenda, item 8B - Nominations to the World Heritage List – is the one which has the potential to have most impact for Scots.
There, among the Natural Sites listed for inscription to the prestigious list between Migratory Bird Sanctuaries along the Coast of Yellow Sea-Bohai Gulf of China and the remarkable Lençóis Maranhenses National Park in Brazil, with its 40 plus miles of sand dunes that fill with rainwater to create freshwater lagoons, sits Scotland’s vast peaty bog. Alongside the Flow Country’s nomination is the clearest sign so far that Scotland is set to have a new World Heritage Site within weeks: the letter I, indicating a recommendation for inscription. If rubber stamped, the Flow Country, 400,000 hectares of mist and midges, ancient boggy marshland and rare mosses, of which around 45% is in dire need of regeneration and other parts beautifully unspoiled, and home to a vast range of plants and wildlife, will have a new claim to fame.
World Heritage site status is reserved for places of particular cultural, historical or scientific significance, judged to contain "cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of ou.
