The Greek Culture Minister announced that it intends to officially sponsor the traditional villages of the Zagori district in Epirus, northwestern Greece, as a Greek “cultural landscape” to be added to the UNESCO World Heritage list. For the last two years, the “Zagorochoria – North Pindos National Park” area have been on the UNESCO Tentative List – one of the conditions for inclusion in the list of World Heritage Sites.

“It is with great joy that the culture and sports ministry announces its decision to finalize its proposal for the inclusion of Zagori on the UNESCO World Heritage Monuments List,” said Culture and Sports Minister Costas Tassoulas at a conference held at the culture ministry on Thursday.

In order for a cultural landscape to be included in UNESCO’s World Heritage list, it must be shown to have exceptional global value. There needs to be a comparitive study of the site that compares it to others, both included and not included on the UNESCO list. The area also needs to have a written management plans as well as guarantees for the effective implementation of this. There also needs to be an emergency plan that outlines how the area’s management will deal with factors likely to affect the area.