Does a World Heritage listing mean giving up national sovereignty?
This is a total myth. Many countries eagerly seek World Heritage inscriptions, for pride and the tourism boost they are assumed to generate. Not the U.S., due in large part to the actively promoted misinformation that a World Heritage listing means loss of national sovereignty—that the U.N. can take over the site. In fact, all UNESCO can do is file comments. World Heritage Committee members can list a site as “in danger,” but even then, the country usually has to agree. The Committee may even delist a site, but has never done so. Notably, World Heritage could be in part labeled “made in U.S.A.” Americans Joseph Fisher and Russell Train first proposed combining cultural with natural sites into a single global program of recognition. Why are most U.S. sites national parks? Why doesn’t the U.S. have World Heritage historic cities like Bath, England, or Quebec City, Canada? In the U.S., a 1980 amendment to the Preservation Act requires written consent of all landowners involved in a World
