World Heritage The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is responsible for the UK’s compliance with the UNESCO World Heritage Convention, which the UK ratified in 1984. The UK currently has 25 World Heritage Sites: an additional three are in Overseas Territories: the Town of St George and related fortifications in Bermuda; Gough and Inaccessible Islands (Tristan da Cunha); and Henderson Island (Pitcairn).
The Expert Panel that reviewed the List also suggested that the Fountain Cavern in Anguilla could be considered for the UK Tentative List in the future as part of a possible transnational nomination.
Every six years, the signatories to the Convention are invited to submit a report to UNESCO covering the state of conservation of the World Heritage properties located on its territories. The Department submits these on behalf of world heritage sites in the Overseas Territories and represents them at meetings of the World Heritage Committee. The Department is also responsible for nominating sites for world heritage status. Governments put forward new sites from a Tentative List of Future Nominations. Each Tentative List is expected to last for approximately ten years. Following a public consultation and review process, the Department announced the new UK Tentative List in March 2011. There were eleven sites on the list, three of them in Overseas Territories: > Gorham’s Cave Complex, Gibraltar – This complex is of international importance because of the long sequence of occupation and the evidence for the end of Neanderthal humans, and the arrival of modern humans. > The Island of St. Helena – This site has a high number of endemic species and genera and a range of habitats, from cloud forest to desert, representing a biome of great age which exists nowhere else on earth. > Turks and Caicos Islands – The islands have a high number of endemic species and others of international importance, partially dependent on the conditions created by the oldest established salt-pan development in the Caribbean.
Giant tortoise on St Helena Credit: Chrystele Todd
The UK National Lottery The UK National Lottery is the most cost efficient in Europe and has so far raised £27 billion for Good Causes. Some 28% of Lottery revenue is distributed to Good Causes through a number of distributing bodies which support sport, the arts, heritage and communities. The Lottery cannot currently be played in the Territories. However, distributing bodies, which make their funding decisions independently of Government, can make grants to support good causes in the Territories to organisations based in the UK and working in the Territories, where applications meet the relevant criteria and the distributors have the legal vires to do so.
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