DOT backs Mayon’s bid as UNESCO World Heritage Site

The Department of Tourism is in full support of the efforts of the Province of Albay to make Mayon Volcano on the list of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization World Heritage Site.

"The DoT expresses its full and unequivocal support to Mayon's bid to be included in the UNESCO World Heritage Sites as it is completely disserving in such recognition. Works have already been done by our local government units to facilitate the application," Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco said in a media interview in Camalig, Albay during the Bicol leg of the Philippine Experience Program on Monday.

"The DoT is very happy to endorse such a move for the declaration in favor of Mayon Volcano," Frasco added.

Last August, Kurt Zepeda, Albay's local historian and one of the writers for the nomination of Mayon Volcano as a World Heritage Site, said they are now preparing to make the perfect cone volcano to be included on the list as a World Heritage Site.

''In 2015, we submitted Mayon as a world heritage site, but it was placed under a tentative list by UNESCO,'' Zepeda said in a Philippine Information Agency article.

It said that a meeting was already conducted by key agencies including officers from the Philippine National Commission for UNESCO, Bicol University, National Commission for Culture and Arts, and some provincial department heads to discuss preparations regarding their bid to add the Mayon Volcano under the UNESCO's world heritage list.

The nomination will be submitted in February 2024.

Zepeda said that once included on the list, Mayon will be endorsed by UNESCO and will be touted as a 'must-see destination.''

To be included on the World Heritage List, sites must be of outstanding universal value and meet at least one out of 10 selection criteria, namely: they should represent a masterpiece of human creative genius; exhibit an important interchange of human values, over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world, on developments in architecture or technology, monumental arts, town-planning or landscape design; bear a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization which is living or which has disappeared; an outstanding example of a type of building, architectural or technological ensemble or landscape which illustrates (a) significant stage(s) in human history; and an outstanding example of a traditional human settlement, land-use, or sea-use which is representative of a culture (or cultures), or human interaction with the environment especially when it has become vulnerable under the impact of irreversible change;

Also, the site should be directly or tangibly associated with events or living traditions, with ideas, or with beliefs, with artistic and literary works of outstanding universal significance; contain superlative natural phenomena or areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance; an outstanding example representing major stages of earth's history, including the record of life, significant on-going geological processes in the development of landforms, or significant geomorphic or physiographic features; an outstanding examples representing significant on-going ecological and biological processes in the evolution and development of terrestrial, freshwater, coastal and marine ecosystems and communities of plants and animals; and should contain the most important and significant natural habitats for in-situ conservation of biological diversity, including those containing threatened species of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science or conservation.