In an interview Minister of Culture Manuel Veiga admitted that “the Spanish company recuperating Cidade Velha’s tourist circuit requested an extension of the deadline.” Veiga added that “Spain has provided the financial means for the operations of the group that will prepare the candidacy.”

The group has yet to present its first report, which is expected to be produced soon. Even so, Manuel Veiga says that “in the second phase, more extensive work will be required. Indeed, according to indications from UNESCO itself, assistance from people who’ve previously worked on a winning candidacy will be necessary in order not to repeat certain mistakes.” This “second phase,” stressed the Minister of Culture, is one of his priorities for 2007.

Meanwhile, the official unveiling of the Cidade Velha integrated tourist circuit, to be operated by Spanish-Cape Verdean consortium Prointur, is expected in the coming days. According to IIPC president Carlos Carvalho, “the management of the area is one of the fundamental points” in Cidade Velha’s candidacy as a World Heritage Site.

Places considered World Heritage Sites by UNESCO as a function of their cultural or natural importance may be forests, mountain ranges, lakes, deserts, buildings, complexes or cities.

The World Heritage Fund donates financing to the places selected as World Heritage Sites under certain conditions. The candidacy request must be made by the country in which the potential site is located.

In this case, it is the Cape Verdean state that will present Cidade Velha’s candidacy as a World Heritage Site.

The program was founded by the Convention on the Protection of Cultural and Natural Heritage adopted by UNESCO in 1972. By 2006, a total of 820 sites had been listed, 634 of them cultural, 162 natural and 24 mixed, in 138 different countries.

Source A semana