UN threatens to place Venice on endangered list unless Italy bans cruise ships



Venice will be placed on Unesco’s list of endangered heritage sites if Italy fails to ban giant cruise ships from the city’s lagoon by 2017, the United Nations has warned.

The world heritage committee has expressed “extreme concern” about the deteriorating state of the lagoon and approved a resolution demanding that Venice moves towards the “prohibition of the largest ships and tankers” by next February.

Development was also causing “irreversible changes” to the delicate ecosystem, it complained, stressing a “lack of architectural and town planning coherence”.

Venice hosts more than 25 million tourists every year and there has been bitter debate between environmentalists and the tourism industry about how to protect the city.

The Unesco resolution urges the Italian government to implement “strategic, planning and management frameworks” to stop the cruise liners or face the consequences. 

A fact-finding mission to Venice by Unesco officials in October 2015 found that “the capacity of the city, the number of its inhabitants and the number of tourists is out of balance and causing significant damage”.

If “no substantial progress” is made by February, Venice could go on the UN's "endangered list" of 38 locations, mostly in Africa and Asia.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/15/un-threatens-to-place-venice-on-endangered-list-unless-italy-ban/