What is a world heritage?
World Heritage Sites are cultural and natural heritage of outstanding universal value. They may be a place, a landscape or an object that bears witness to the history of the Earth or its people. Once such relics have been inscribed on UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites, they are guaranteed to be protected and maintained in perpetuity.
The list of World Heritage Sites is based on the World Heritage Convention in 1972 for cultural and natural heritage of outstanding universal value, designated by signatories to the Convention. Sweden signed the convention in 1984 and joined a group then comprising more than 180 countries that had agreed voluntarily to protect their own World Heritage Sites in perpetuity; also, as members of the international community, to support other countries in their efforts to protect their own sites.