FIJI'S political situation will not affect nominations made for World Heritage Listings, says World Heritage Centre director, Francesco Bandarin.
Mr Bandarin said heritage was way above party politics as it was normally considered a national interest by everybody.
However, Mr Bandarin said in certain areas, where governments were not strong or affected by other pressures, the problem of conserving and maintaining the quality of sites arose.
"We have a lot of sites in many countries so this means a lot of problems every day. So we are quite used to problems," he said.
"Statistically, every week there is a disaster so we are always on the alert and try to do our best to cope with these situations."
"UNESCO has been quite successful in maintaining the quality of the list. I cannot say it is perfect because sometimes we have lost the value of particular sites," he said.
Mr Bandarin said it was a daily struggle that was bound to become worse over time.
Mr Bandarin said every situation from the increase in population to urbanisation was a potential threat to sites that were sometimes fragile or located in urban centres.
He said the basic principle of being listed as a heritage site was to be declared to have outstanding universal value.
He said the World Heritage Committee had a very strict and complex criteria in place to meet before sites were declared as World Heritage sites.
Mr Bandarin along with UNESCO's World Heritage Centre chief of staff Anne Lemaistre arrived in Fiji on Friday evening to inspect several sites that could be considered possible World Heritage sites.
Yesterday, Mr Bandarin and Ms Lemaistre visited the Sigatoka Sand Dunes before heading to the Kula Eco Park.
Today, Mr Bandarin and Ms Lemaistre accompanied by officials from the Ministry of Fijian Affairs, Culture and Heritage will travel to Levuka to inspect sites that are involved in the process of being nominated for the prestigious list.
Adi Meretui Ratunabuabua said they have been working on the nomination of Levuka for more than ten years and it was a very lengthy process that was still in the process of being finalised.
However, Adi Meretui said they had presented a draft nomination and were expected to finalise a final nomination by February next year.
If declared a World Heritage Site, Levuka will be included among some of the wonders of the world like the Pyramids of Egypt, Acropolis of Greece, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador, the Taj Mahal in India and the Grand Canyon in the United States.
