Venice May Soon Be Labeled 'Endangered'

Venice isn't doing enough to protect its cultural heritage, according to experts at UNESCO, who are recommending that the Italian city and its lagoon be added to a list of endangered World Heritage sites. Mass tourism, overdevelopment, and rising sea levels linked to climate change put the site at risk of "irreversible" damage, according to a UNESCO report compiled ahead of a September meeting of the UN cultural agency's World Heritage Committee, where the status of 1,157 World Heritage sites will be debated. Experts have recommended that several—including the Ukrainian cities of Kyiv and Lviv—join the 55 sites currently on the World Heritage in Danger list.

In the case of Venice, "persistent and complex issues related in particular to mass tourism, development projects and climate change" risk "deterioration and damage to building structures and urban areas, degrading the cultural and social identity of the property and threatening the integrity of its cultural, environmental and landscape attributes and values," UNESCO said, per CNN. Though the Italian state has proposed corrective measures, these are "currently insufficient and not detailed enough," the agency added, per Reuters. "Resolution of long-standing but urgent issues is hindered by a lack of overall joint strategic vision for the longterm preservation of the property and low effectiveness of integrated coordinated management at all stakeholder levels."

The recommendation is "a blow for authorities" in the city which receives some 28 million tourists annually, per the BBC. Venice only narrowly missed being placed on the endangered list two years ago after the government passed emergency measures meant to curtail tourists, including a ban on cruise ships in the San Marco Canal. But an "ambitious conservation plan" for the city was "never implemented," the BBC reports. The municipality of Venice says it "will carefully read the proposed decision" and "discuss it with the government." Meanwhile, Australian officials have bought some time as the committee opted to defer its decision on whether to add the Great Barrier Reef to the "in danger" list until next year, per ABC Australia. (More Venice stories.)