Three new sites placed on World Heritage list

PARIS: UNESCO has placed three new natural areas -- in China, South Korea and Madagascar -- on its list of world heritage sites, the UN's culture organisation said on Wednesday.   

The South China Karst is a 600,000 square kilometre region in Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi Provinces, representing "one of the world's most spectacular examples of humid tropical to sub-tropical karst landscapes", UNESCO said.   

Karst is a geological term describing a landscape of porous rock fissured with deep crevasses and underground caves and streams.    

The Jeju Volcanic Island and Lava Tubes site lies off South Korea's southern coast. 

It includes Geomunoreum, "which is regarded as the finest lava tube system of caves anywhere ... and Mount Hallasan, the highest in Korea, with its waterfalls, multi-shaped rock formations and lake-filled crater," UNESCO said.   

The Madagascar site - the Rainforests of the Atsinanana - comprises six national parks distributed along the eastern part of the island.   

"These forests are critically important for maintaining ongoing ecological processes necessary for the survival of Madagascar's unique biodiversity, which reflects the island's geological history," UNESCO said.   

The organisation's World Heritage Committee is meeting in New Zealand to consider 45 applications to join the prestigious list, which currently contains 830 sites.   

On Tuesday, the committee placed Ecuador's Galapagos islands on a second list of endangered heritage sites because of the threat from tourism and non-native species.