The Macao-based Concern Group for the Protection of the Guia Lighthouse has had requests for assistance denied by UNESCO, the Macao Daily Times reports.
According to the report, the group asked the Paris-based organisation to help halt the construction of a building at 18-20 Calçada do Gaio, arguing that its height of 81.32 metres could result in “permanent and irreversible” damage to the World Cultural Heritage site’s landscape. The group wanted UNESCO to seek information from the central government regarding the building’s Heritage Impact Assessment.
“UNESCO is not in a position to make such a request,” the UN-affiliated body said. It also refused the group’s request to dispatch experts to the area for an inspection, noting that “such missions are, in principle, conducted either at the request of the World Heritage Committee (Reactive Monitoring missions) or at the invitation of the States Parties (Advisory missions).”
UNESCO noted that it was aware of the issues raised by the activist group and said that it was involved in discussions with the various stakeholders regarding the lighthouse.
[See more: Conservationists say not enough is being done to protect the Guia Lighthouse]
The Calçada do Gaio building was originally intended to have a height of 126.12 metres. However, following the issuing of a 2008 order to limit the height of buildings near the Guia Lighthouse to 52.5 metres, the construction of the building, which had already reached a height of 81.32 metres, was halted.
In 2022, the government announced that building would be completed in compliance with UNESCO requirements and that the structure – which is set to be finished in October 2026 – would be no higher than 81.32 metres.
The Guia Lighthouse activist group, however, is calling for the building’s height to be cut back to the limit set back in 2008, which would involve demolishing a number of floors of the 20-storey structure.
Over the past several years, the group has sent multiple letters to UNESCO and expressed its concerns to the Cultural Affairs Bureau over the adverse effects of tall buildings near the World Heritage Site.
