The bid to make the Flow Country a World Heritage Site has taken a major step forward.
The Flow Country of Caithness and Sutherland has emerged as the UK’s next bid to join the Taj Mahal in India, the Grand Canyon in the USA, Machu Pichu in Peru and the Great Barrier Reef in Australia as gaining Unesco’s top status.
Now project coordinator Joe Perry has confirmed that the initial part of the process was completed last week with the submission of the technical evaluation to the UK Government.
“This is essentially the first stage of the application process to become a World Heritage Site, so it is a very important step,” he said.
“The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport will assess our technical evaluation in mid-January, before deciding whether or not we can proceed to stage two which involves a full nomination document going to UNESCO in 18 to 24 months’ time.”
Mr Perry, who is project coordinator for the Flow Country World Heritage Site Working Group, said the next stage involves a second round of community consultation. This follows on from a series of 15 drop-in sessions and Full Flow events, featuring TV historian Neil Oliver, geologist Professor Iain Stewart and Unesco expert Professor Barry Gilbertson.