Venice Keeps Off List of Endangered World Sites

14.09.2023 - 19:51 / nytimes.com / Luigi Brugnaro

Venice will not be included on UNESCO’s list of “World Heritage in Danger” after a panel voted on Thursday to reject the recommendation of experts at the agency who had raised concerns that Italy had not done enough to protect the fragile city, which is threatened by climate change, mass tourism and development.

Still, representatives of countries upholding the World Heritage Convention, which seeks to protect and preserve cultural sites, said in a statement that “further progress still needs to be made” to properly conserve Venice. During a debate on Thursday afternoon at a World Heritage Committee session in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, several delegates said Italy should host a new advisory mission in Venice in the coming months to monitor the efficacy of the measures that Italy has taken so far and to make suggestions.

“Venice is not at risk,” Mayor Luigi Brugnaro wrote on social media Thursday evening, describing the result as a “great victory.” Posting on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, he added: “The world has understood all the work we have done to save our city.”

Italy was warned in July that Venice, a World Heritage Site since 1987, was being considered for UNESCO’s “in danger” list, even though the state and city have made significant changes to try to protect Venice.

Large cruise ships have been banned from entering Venetian waters. Massive barriers at the mouths of the lagoon hold seawater at bay and stop high tides from flooding the city. And officials have begun tracking tourists via their cellphone data to monitor their movements.

This week, City Council voted that, starting next year, day-trippers to Venice will be expected to pay 5 euros on days when the city is extremely crowded with tourists. City officials hope that the measure will curb some of the millions of tourists who throng to the city each year — five million so far in 2023. Those who stay overnight won’t be charged.

Venice almost made the danger list in 2021, but then, too, member countries rejected the proposal.

Despite the changes in Venice, UNESCO experts who have been closely monitoring the city felt that Italy and the local government had not done enough. Once a site is placed on the danger list, it can lose its World Heritage status, which acknowledges its outstanding universal value.

But the 21 member states thought Italy’s efforts were to be commended, and several said that it was “premature” to put Venice on the list. Several pointed out that climate change was a global issue, affecting many cultural heritage sites, and said Italy should not be singled out.

Some citizen groups had hoped that the city would be recognized as endangered. Nearly 5,000 people signed a petition addressed to the UNESCO general