São Tomé and Príncipe has drawn up a shortlist of natural and cultural assets that it intends to submit to Unesco for inclusion on the World Heritage List, the Portuguese news agency Lusa reports.
Set for consideration are the Obô nature parks on São Tomé and on the island of Príncipe; the plantations of Monte Café and Água Izé, in São Tomé; and Roça Sundy, the former coffee plantation, now a boutique hotel, on the island of Príncipe.
The latter is part of scientific history. It was at Roça Sundy in 1919 that British physicist Sir Arthur Eddington proved Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity while observing the curvature of light rays during a solar eclipse.
[See more: China to invest US$100 million in São Tomé airport expansion]
The plantations of Monte Café and Água Izé were the epicentres of the nation’s coffee industry in the 18th and 19th centuries
Unesco’s regional director for Central Africa Paul Coustère said the candidacy process could proceed “relatively quickly because the files seem to be well founded”. “It’s a process that lasts about two years.
São Tomé authorities are also drawing up a shortlist of intangible heritage, which will include the Tchiloli (performances combining theatre, dance and music) and the Auto de Floripes street theatre festival, as well as musical genres, gastronomic assets and more.
The island of Príncipe has been a UNESCO world biosphere reserve since 2012. Coustère said its natural heritage was “a very important reserve of biodiversity” of global importance.
