UNITED NATIONS (BNO NEWS) – The United Nations added two new sites to the World Heritage List, the Central Highlands of Srilanka and the Papahânaumokuâkea islands and atolls in the United States have both been inscribed on the World Heritage List, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) said on Saturday.

The Central Highlands are situated in the south-central part of Sri Lanka, and compromise the Peak Wilderness Protected Area, the Horton Plains National Park, and the Knuckles Conservation Forest. The forests, where the land rises to 2,500 meters above sea-level, are home to an plethora of flora and fauna, which include a number of several endangered species such as the western purple faced langur, the Horton Plains slender loris, and the Sri Lankan leopard. The region is considered a super biodiversity hotspot for its immense natural variety.

Papahânaumokuâkea is a vast and very isolated linear cluster of small low lying islands and atolls, which is an island of coral that encircles a lagoon, with their surrounding ocean, roughly 250 kilometers to the northwest of the main Hawaiian Archipelago. The area has deep significance for the living native Hawaiian culture, as an ancestral environment, as a physical representation of the Hawaiian concept of kinship between people and the natural world, and as a place where it is believed that life originates and to where the soul returns after death.

On two of the islands, Makumanamana and Nihoa, there are archaeological remains relating to pre-European settlement and use. Much of the monument is made up of deepwater habitats, featuring seamounts and submerged banks, extensive coral reefs, and lagoons.

The new additions to the World Heritage List bring the total list of properties to 892.

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