Venezia runs the risk of being included in the list of World Heritage Sites in Danger (look yesterday at the viral photo taken in Venice). To recommend her inclusion was theUNESCO, the cultural agency of the United Nations, because of irreversible damage caused to the city by mass tourism and climate change. The Serenissima would therefore require extraordinary interventions for its conservation.
Venice threatened by climate change and mass tourism
In addition to Venice, UNESCO experts have identified and recommended other sites to be included in the list, including Kiev and Lviv. In a document, anticipated by Repubblica, then taken up and confirmed by other newspapers, in reference to the lagoon city it is written: "The effects of continued deterioration due to human intervention, including continued development, climate change impacts and mass tourism, threaten to cause irreversible damage to Outstanding Universal Value." For Venice and Italy, inclusion in the list would mean having limitations on decision-making autonomy over the city. The World Heritage Committee, the body that selects UNESCO sites, will meet in Riyadh between 10 and 25 September 2023.
It's not the first time…
Since 1987 Venice is World Heritage, however already in 2021 it had risked ending up on the list of sites at risk. In that case, the request had been withdrawn after the government, led by Mario Draghi, had decided to remove large ships from the most important canals, promising an ambitious conservation plan for the city which, however, has not had a concrete follow-up.
The opposition of the former mayor Massimo Cacciari
The inclusion of Venice in the list of heritage at risk is a alarming signal which should mobilize international attention to safeguard this precious historic city and its unique environment. However, the former mayor Massimo Cacciari does not think so and, in commenting to AdnKronos on the proposal put forward by the Unesco experts, he thundered: "Unesco is one of the most expensive useless bodies on the face of the Earth... They shoot judgments without knowing and without knowing, they proceed by decreeing opinions left and right, of which it is good to disregard”. And again: “Venice's risk is linked to natural and climatic disasters that could cause the sea level to rise. After that, certainly there is a great tourist pressure, as indeed in Florence or Rome. But what are we to do? The Italian economy is supported by 20% of tourism and luckily there is tourism”.
