UNESCO Again Recommends Venice Joins Heritage Danger List

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) this week recommended that Venice be added to the heritage danger list.

The list is made up of World Heritage Sites that UNESCO says appear to be in danger because of a variety of reasons whether it’s war, climate change, natural disasters, or something else. It currently includes sites such as Everglades National Park in the U.S., the Historic Centre of Vienna in Austria, the Historic Centre of Odesa in Ukraine, and more.

UNESCO is recommending Venice join the list because of issues that have been spotlighted over the past few years, including overtourism, climate change, and extreme weather. UNESCO made the same recommendation in 2021 but ultimately didn’t add Venice to the list after the city approved a tourist tax that it hoped would control crowds during its busy season and also banned large cruise ships from its city center.

But the new recommendation said that Venice’s solutions to the issues are “currently insufficient and not detailed enough and should be subject to further discussions and exchanges.” 

The hope for UNESCO is that Venice takes further steps to battle against overtourism and climate change issues. Representatives for the city told CNN that it plans on reading the proposal and talking with UNESCO about the recommendation, but UNESCO is recommending more concrete steps be taken to protect the city.

Whether or not that happens is up to Venice, but it is worth noting that the list does have some success after Belize’s government imposed a moratorium on oil exploration and drilling in all of Belize’s offshore waters, protecting the reef’s ecosystem.

Venice was one of several sites recommended for the heritage danger list this week—others include the Historic Centre of Salzburg in Austria, the Ancient City of Nessebar in Bulgaria, the Old City of Dubrovnik in Croatia, the City of Valletta in Malta, and more. The full list can be found here.