International Cooperation in the Arctic as a Way to Preserve the Natural and Cultural Heritage

Abstract

The rapid growth of the threat to the destruction of natural and cultural values prompted the world community to realize the need to join efforts to preserve the achievements of nature and culture. Henceforth, the importance of the factor of cooperation in international relations becomes greater. The article considers multilateral cooperation in the field of preservation of cultural and natural heritage in the Arctic. The Arctic is a territory where the interests of many states overlap, so cooperation issues are particularly important here. The Arctic region has a unique natural and cultural heritage that needs constant protection. The authors aim at analyzing the modern system of defense of the world cultural and natural heritage, developed by UNESCO. The authors mean the world heritage as the most valuable foundation, a set of artifacts of spiritual and material culture created by man, and the wealth created by nature, inherited from past generations are preserved at present and transferred to future generations. The article pays attention not only to sites already on the UNESCO World Heritage List, but also to those that are to be included on the UNESCO List. Special attention is paid to the interaction of Russia and UNESCO on the issues of identifying new sites of natural and cultural heritage in the Arctic.