Application process

The application was submitted to the UNESCO Commission at the end of January 2022 by the Italian Diplomatic Representation to UNESCO in Paris through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as per the procedure.

At the beginning of March 2022, a positive preliminary verification of the completeness of the application dossier was received from the World Heritage Center.

With this communication, the international evaluation process of the application began, which will be subject to the technical examination of the advisory bodies of the World Heritage Committee, particularly the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature). The key moments of the process, which will conclude in 2023 at the 46th session of the Committee with the decision on the possible inscription in the "World Heritage List," are as follows:

• Evaluation Panel: Based on the key themes of the application and the proposed inscription criteria, the IUCN established a panel of international experts to verify the technical-scientific contents of the dossier.
• On-site Evaluation Mission: Between November 21 and 28, 2022, an on-site inspection was carried out by the IUCN expert independent of the evaluation panel. The mission included field visits and meetings with scientific experts, management bodies, institutional and local stakeholders.
• Evaluation Sessions and Additional Information: On January 26, 2023, an interim report was submitted (link: https://whc.unesco.org/document/198309), and some requests for technical-documentary integration were made. These integration requests were handled by the Region, and some supplementary documents were subsequently prepared and transmitted by the Ministry of Environment and Energy Security, with a note dated February 27, 2023, to the Permanent Representative to UNESCO for forwarding to the IUCN.
• Technical Evaluation Outcome: On July 7, 2023, the Ministry of Environment and Energy Security announced that the IUCN had completed the technical evaluation process and drafted the "Technical Evaluation" ( link: ” https://whc.unesco.org/archive/2023/whc23-45com-inf8B2-en.pdf) which contains a draft decision on the outcome of the application, accompanied by prescriptions and recommendations, submitted to the decision of the 21 members of the World Heritage Committee, including Italy, which is responsible for decreeing or modifying the IUCN's proposal in whole or in part.
• Final Decision: On September 19, 2023, in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), the UNESCO International Committee inscribed the Karst and caves in the evaporites of the Northern Apennines on the list of natural assets of the UNESCO World Heritage. (link: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1692.)