Outcome of a cross-border project after more than 10 years...
Signature with Charles-Ange Ginésy, President of the Alpes-Maritimes Departmental Council,
and Paolo Salsotto, President of the EGTC (Alpi Marittime-Mercantour European Park)
On 25 January 2018, the final dossier for the Mediterranean Alps’ candidature for UNESCO World Heritage status was signed before filing with the UNESCO Permanent Secretariat at the end of January 2018. With their signatures, Charles Ange Ginésy, President of the Alpes-Maritimes département and Vice-President of the Alpi Marittime-Mercantour European Nature Park, and Paolo Salsotto, also President of the Alpi Marittime-Mercantour European Nature Park and President of the Alpi Marittime Park in Italy, sealed the outcome of a cross-border project which took more than 10 years to prepare, bringing together three States (France, Italy and the Principality of Monaco). It should be noted that this document was signed the previous day by the Monegasque representative, His Excellency Bernard Fautrier, Minister Plenipotentiary, Advisor to the Minister of State and Vice Trustee of the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation.
Signature with Charles-Ange Ginésy, President of the Alpes-Maritimes Departmental Council,
and Paolo Salsotto, President of the EGTC (Alpi Marittime-Mercantour European Park)
The candidature focuses on the territory’s geological, and more specifically tectonic, history. According to the UNESCO Committee’s official press release: “This is a geological system of major importance for understanding terrestrial geodynamics which, within just a 70km radius, links the Alps’ southernmost glacier to the deepest abysses in the western Mediterranean Sea. The Mediterranean Alps are the known site where traces of three successive geodynamic cycles are visible over a period of 400 million years.”
The site clearly illustrates in one place the formation of two mountain ranges (Variscan and Alpine) over which was superposed, approximately 30 million years ago, the tectonic phenomenon of the opening of the western Mediterranean Sea. This last tectonic phenomenon led to the transverse rupture of the Western Alps, a mountain range that was still young, by the opening of an oceanic basin: the western Mediterranean.
Signature with Charles-Ange Ginésy, President of the Alpes-Maritimes Departmental Council
and Paolo Salsotto, President of the EGTC (Alpi Marittime-Mercantour European Park)
The site for which the candidature is being filed covers a 268,500ha surface area, 60% on land and 40% at sea. It concerns nearly 80 communes, including 60% of protected Nature areas. The territories concerned include significant portions of the Mercantour National Park, the hinterland of Nice and Menton, the French Riviera and the Principality of Monaco. On the Italian site, it includes the Alpi Marittime and Marguareis Parks, the Alpi Liguri Park, communes in the Stura and Tanaro valleys in the Piedmont and the hinterland of the Ligurian Ponente.
Signature with Charles-Ange Ginésy, President of the Alpes-Maritimes Departmental Council
and Paolo Salsotto, President of the EGTC (Alpi Marittime-Mercantour European Park)
This project is backed by the Alpi Marittime-Mercantour European Nature Park and will be submitted to UNESCO by the Italian State on behalf of all co-candidates.