ICOMOS har henvendt seg til UNESCO om konsekvenser av havbruksnæring i verdensarvområdet
Her er fulltekst av brevet som ble sendt:
Director Mechtild Rössler
UNESCO/World Heritage Centre
Paris, France
ICOMOS NORWAY Bergen 25th of October 2016
c/o Riksantikvaren I Oslo
Pb 8196, 0034 OSLO
THREATS TO THE VEGA ARCHIPELAGO WORLD HERITAGE SITE
ICOMOS Norway will hereby express our deep concern regarding the problems created by the introduction of Salmon fish farms close to, and even inside, the WH-site.
A private consulting firm has this summer been engaged to evaluate what visual impact fish farming represent in a WH-site like the Vega islands and its shallow waters. The Assessment concludes that fish farming in practice and principle is incompatible with the intentions behind the WH-site.
ICOMOS Norway find it incomprehensible that that fish farming to this extent has been permitted and not already stopped by environmental authorities responsible for the national management of World Heritage Sites. We consider that fish farming, at a large scale, will have a considerable visual impact on the cultural landscape, and we understand that it will have serious consequences on the overall landscape, the traditional use, the nature and all living creatures in the marine ecosystem of the shallow waters of the site.
ICOMOS Norway will, based on these considerations, request that International Experts evaluate threats to the Outstanding Universal Values of the World Heritage Sites of Vega Archipelago, as soon as possible.
ICOMOS Norway fully supports the complaints made to UNESCO/WHC by Norwegian national non-governmental organizations in this case.
Yours sincerely
Marianne Knutsen
President ICOMOS Norway
Copy to: ICOMOS International secretariat in Paris, Cultural Heritage Directorate in Oslo
