Mallorca's dramatic mountain range tilts at Unesco glory

The Unesco World Heritage Site Committee has begun its annual session in Paris to decide whether 37 new natural and/or cultural sites will be included on the United Nations' list of places considered remarkable for their outstanding universal value.

Spain- which already has 42 listed sites- is participating this time around with the Serra de Tramuntana mountain range in Mallorca. "It is a landscape that has been very intensely shaped by man, testifying to the continued interaction between mankind and nature throughout the centuries," reads the document that was presented at Unesco with the bid.

The Tramuntana range is "the jewel in the crown" of the island of Mallorca, according to land commissioner María Luisa Dubón. It preserves elements of all the civilizations that settled there, especially Islam, and its landscape is abrupt and striking, going from sea level to an altitude of 1,300 meters within 90 kilometers.

Dubón underscored that getting Tramuntana added to the Unesco list would mean better conservation guarantees. "Mallorca has played the wealth-in-exchange-for-land game a great deal. With the inclusion of Tramuntana we could dignify the territory and achieve a more cultural, selective kind of tourism, which attracts wealth without damaging the environment," said Dubón, who will be in charge of presenting the candidacy in Paris, before the World Heritage Site Committee, on June 23.

The Committee is made up of representatives from 21 countries, who have a four-year mandate. On average, four out of every 10 entries are accepted each year.

Besides selecting new sites, the Committee also reviews existing sites that are in danger of losing their exceptional value and are threatened with being taken off the list. There are 34 endangered sites across the world, none of which are in Spain. A further eight candidates could be added to that list this month. While the list itself is confidential, sources have confirmed that one of them is the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu in Peru, which is in danger due to excessive tourist activity.