The newly elected Chairman of Ramblers' Association Scotland, Chic Nash, has called for action by the Scottish Executive to enable designation of the Cairngorms as a World Heritage Site.
Speaking at the Ramblers’ Scotland Annual Meeting, Chic Nash said, "In October 1983 George Younger, when Secretary of State for Scotland, announced that the UK Government would be ratifying the World Heritage Convention. Since then successive governments have recommended that the Cairngorms be put forward for world heritage designation, yet virtually no real progress has been made in preparing a submission to the international bodies.”
“This issue was fully debated in the Scottish Parliament in International Year of the Mountains 2002. The IYM debate demonstrated that there is strong cross party support for world heritage status in the Cairngorms, so we are very surprised that there hasn’t been progress since then in persuading Scottish Executive Ministers to advance the Cairngorms world heritage proposals."
Chic continued, "We are very pleased to see how much progress the Cairngorms National Park has made in such a short time. This must surely be a strong signal to Ministers that it is about time they turned to the opportunities available to the Cairngorms through world heritage designation.”
“If Scotland does not seize this opportunity we can be sure that other countries will. With England proposing to nominate Kew Gardens, you can be sure that Scottish Executive inaction is allowing the Cairngorms to slide steadily down the priority list. The politicians need to follow up their fine words in 2002 with firm action in 2005."
