Malaysia has many wonders and has achieved global recognition from UNESCO for its heritage sites. But there’s apparently one state in the country that has now broken a new record.
Today (Friday, 26th May) marks a very special day as it was recently announced that Sabah’s Kinabalu National Geopark has been declared a UNESCO Global Geopark! This means that the state is now the owner of a UNESCO Triple Crown site.
So what does a UNESCO Triple Crown site mean? As reported by The Star, this is the 3rd time the Kinabalu park earned a UNESCO “crown” or recognition with the previous ones being the World Heritage Site which was declared back in 2000, and the Unesco Crocker Range Biosphere Reserve back in 2014.
According to Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor, Sabah has now joined the ranks of South Korea’s Jeju Island and Shennongjia in China as they are the only three in the world to have three Unesco sites. It was said that the decision for the declaration was made by Unesco’s executive Board in Paris earlier this week.
“This is a great achievement for the state government under its Hala Tuju Sabah Maju Jaya initiatives through the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Environment and Sabah Parks,” said the Chief Minister. For your information, the state has been working on earning the recognition since the year 2020 according to the Kinabalu Geopark social media.
Sabah’s newly earned UNESCO Global Geopark recognition means that there are now a total of 195 geoparks in the world located in 48 countries. We would like to take this time to congratulate Sabah for this amazing achievement and for making Malaysia proud!
If you’re curious to know the criteria for a country’s geopark to be declared as a UNESCO Global Geopark, you can read the full requirements on the Kinabalu Geopark website or UNESCO’s official website.
