Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch
The extension of the natural World Heritage
property of Jungfrau - Aletsch - Bietschhorn (first inscribed in 2001),
expands the site to the east and west, bringing its surface area up to
82,400 ha., up from 53,900. The site provides an outstanding example of
the formation of the High Alps, including the most glaciated part of the
mountain range and the largest glacier in Eurasia. It features a wide
diversity of ecosystems, including successional stages due particularly
to the retreat of glaciers resulting from climate change. The site is of
outstanding universal value both for its beauty and for the wealth of
information it contains about the formation of mountains and glaciers,
as well as ongoing climate change. It is also invaluable in terms of the
ecological and biological processes it illustrates, notably through
plan succession. Its impressive landscape has played an important role
in European art, literature, mountaineering and alpine tourism.