全人类的遗产

位于宾夕法尼亚州费城的18世纪的独立厅(Independence Hall)与澳大利亚大堡礁(Great Barrier Reef)中繁多的海洋生物有何共同之处？阿拉斯加冰川湾(Glacier Bay)的冰峰和铁杉林与柬埔寨吴哥窟(Angkor Wat)的古寺和神韵有何联系？

回答是：它们都是世界遗产(World Heritage Sites)，即人类共有的具有特别重要意义的自然与文化宝藏。如今，全世界被列入基于《保护世界文化和自然遗产公约》(Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage)确立的《世界遗产目录》(World Heritage List)的地方有875处。这项公约得到185个国家的承认，是保护自然与文化遗产领域中受到最广泛 支持的国际条约。

在列入目录的美国20处世界遗产中，有17处在美国国家公园管理局(National Park Service)的管辖范围内，公园管理局的国际事务办公室(Office of International Affairs)则是美国政府在世界遗产事务方面的技术顾问。美国的世界文化遗产既包括黄石国家公园(Yellowstone National Park)、大峡谷国家公园(Grand Canyon National Park)和自由女神像(Statue of Liberty)等著名景观，也包括一些比较鲜为人知的地方，例如，位于伊利诺伊州的史前印第安人城市——卡霍基亚土丘历史遗址(Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site)，和位于新墨西哥州的公元1400年前由阿那萨齐印第安人(Anasazi Indians)建造、至今仍在使用的社区居家结构——陶斯印第安人村落(Taos Pueblo)。

制定世界遗产公约的构想起源于尼克松(Richard Nixon)政府1971年的一项建议。尼克松总统形容这一构想是美国国家公园概念在世界范围的表达。尼克松在一项环境政策声明中作了如下阐述："世界各国宜于在1972年前就下述原则达成共识，即：某些在全世界具有独特宝贵价值的地方，应被作为全人类的遗产对待，并将其纳入一个世界遗产信托 (World Heritage Trust)，给与专门承认。"

美国代表团于1972年在斯德哥尔摩举行的联合国人类环境会议(U.N. Conference on the Human Environment)上提出了制定这一公约的构想，公约在同一年举行的联合国教科文组织大会(General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization)上得到通过。

在尼克松政府中任环境质量委员会(Council on Environmental Quality)主席的特雷恩(Russell E. Train)当年在斯德哥尔摩会议上阐述了美国的构想，他在由联合国教科文组织支持的公约制定过程中发挥了关键作用。特雷恩在纪念公约生效30周年时表示，世界遗产公约认识到"人类与环境以及自然环境与人造环境之间不可分割的相互关系"。

得到公约承认的遍布各地的各类世界遗产虽然仍属提名它们的国家管辖，但被视作全人类的共同遗产。参加这项公约的国家承诺保护被列入世界遗产目录的景物，"整个国际社会有责任为保护这些地方进行合作"。

美国的国家公园管理局、鱼类和野生动物管理局(Fish and Wildlife Service)以及林业局(Forest Service)等政府机构同参加公约的国家展开合作，帮助保护从加拉帕戈斯群岛(Galapagos Islands)、到泰姬陵(Taj Mahal)、到俄罗斯堪察加半岛(Kamchatka Peninsula)火山的全球数以百计的世界遗产地。

被称为月之港(Port of the Moon)的法国港口城市波尔多(Bordeaux)是最近被列入世界遗产的地点之一，它作为两千年来连绵不断促进文化交流的一座历史居住城市而著称。韩国的济州火山岛和熔岩隧洞(Jeju Volcanic Island and Lava Tubes)也于2007年被列入世界遗产目录。根据世界遗产公约的文件，这里拥有全世界最精致的熔岩隧洞网，对科学地认识火山活动作出了重大贡献。

The Heritage of All Humanity

What does Independence Hall, an 18th-century building site in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, share with the teeming sea life of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef? What is the connection between the icy peaks and the hemlock forests of Alaska’s Glacier Bay and the ancient temples and spiritual presence of Cambodia’s Angkor Wat complex?

All of these are designated as World Heritage Sites, places of distinctive significance in humanity’s shared natural and cultural inheritance. The World Heritage List, now encompassing more than 875 sites, is maintained under the World Heritage Convention, a conservation treaty recognized by 185 nations, making it the most widely recognized international instrument for the preservation of both natural and cultural heritage sites.

Seventeen of the 20 U.S. sites on the World Heritage List are part of the National Park Service system, and the Park Service’s Office of International Affairs serves as the U.S. government’s technical advisor on World Heritage matters. World Heritage sites in the United States include such iconic landmarks as Yellowstone National Park, Grand Canyon National Park, and the Statue of Liberty, along with lesser-known sites such as Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site in Illinois – a prehistoric American Indian city -- and the Taos Pueblo in New Mexico, a still-active communal living structure built by Anasazi Indians before 1400.

The idea for the World Heritage Convention comes from a 1971 proposal by the administration of President Richard Nixon, who portrayed the idea as a global expression of the park concept born in the United States. Nixon outlined the idea in a statement of his environmental policy: “It would be fitting by 1972 for the nations of the world to agree to the principle that there are certain areas of such unique worldwide value that they should be treated as part of the heritage of all mankind and accorded special recognition as a part of a World Heritage Trust.”

The U.S. delegation presented the concept of the convention at the U.N. Conference on the Human Environment held in Stockholm in 1972, and the convention was adopted later that year by the General Conference of United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Russell E. Train, who served as chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality in the Nixon administration, made the U.S. presentation in Stockholm and played a key role in the founding of the convention under the auspices of UNESCO. On the 30th anniversary of the convention, Train said that the World Heritage Convention recognizes “the integral interrelationship between humanity and environment, as well as between the natural environment and the man-made environment.”

The diverse and far-flung sites recognized by the convention are considered the legacy of all humankind while still being under the control of the country that nominated them. By participating in the convention, nations pledge themselves as caretakers of the unique sites on the World Heritage List “for whose protection it is the duty of the international community as a whole to cooperate.”

The National Park Service and other U.S. agencies such as the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Forest Service have worked with participating nations in the convention to help protect hundreds of World Heritage Sites around the globe -- from the Galapagos Islands to the Taj Mahal to the volcanoes of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula.

The Port of the Moon, port city of Bordeaux, France, is among the most recently listed sites, noted as an inhabited historic city that has fostered cultural exchange for 2,000 years. The Jeju Volcanic Island and Lava Tubes in South Korea were also added to the World Heritage List in 2007. The site includes the finest system of lava tubes anywhere on Earth and has contributed greatly to the scientific understanding of volcanism, according to World Heritage Convention documents.