It was during the World Heritage Committee meeting a few days ago that a decision was made to carry out a reactive monitoring mission to Laponia.
The decision comes after the government granted a processing concession for mining in Kallak. Whether the mine is or not is a hotly debated topic, and now Unesco is going on a control visit to investigate more closely what effect a mine could have on the world heritage of Laponia.
May lose World Heritage status
Senior antiquarian, Susanne Thedéen, however, believes that there is nothing unusual about such inspection visits and points out that it is only the first step in a longer process.
– A next step in a process like this is to possibly get on the list of endangered world heritage. Then, in the next stage, world heritage can lose its status, but as far as Laponia is concerned, this is a first step, it is too early to say what the next step will be.
In the clip you will hear more about Unesco’s inspection visit to Laponia.