**** 9International Herald Tribune | ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT | T hursday, O c to b e r 3 0, 2008

T he French island of Corsica is a moun-tain in the sea, offering opportunitiesto enjoy both land and marine biodiver-

sity. The Gulf of Porto, located on a bay onthe west coast, has both, making it the locusof a unique tourist setting on the island. Thesite includes the Calanche of Piana, the Gulfof Girolata and the Scandola Nature Re-serve. On land, the Calanche coastline ofrocky inlets is famous for its contrasts: Medi-terranean maquis, chestnut forests, andcolored cliffs and red rock formations thatrise imposingly from the sea. The clear, tur-quoise waters in those seas are ideal forswimming, snorkeling, diving and sailing. Thearea is a paradise for diving enthusiasts,who find conditions excellent year-round forobserving submarine plant life and fauna ofdazzling beauty, all easily accessible.

The double magic of land and sea makesthe Gulf of Porto a wonderful place for learn-ing to dive or for climbing the cliffs. Visitorscan explore, on their own, around the smallharbor of Porto with a snorkel and mask, ortake scuba-diving excursions in the bay. In

summer, boats leave from Porto to circle thegulf, an ideal way to admire its red cliffs.Hikers will prefer the ascent of the Capod’Orto (1,296 meters, or 4,250 feet) and itstowering view.

Thirty kilometers (about 19 miles) northof Porto lie Girolata and the ScandolaNature Reserve. Scandola is the coastline’smost famous attraction; its sunsets make itone of Corsica’s biggest tourist draws. Thevolcanic landscape of the adjacent Girolatapeninsula, accessible only by boat or onfoot, has cliffs, jagged peaks and lava formsfrom which fish eagles plunge into the sap-phire waters. They reign here, along with dol-phins, and both will often be the swimmer’scompanions.

The ideal way to visit the Calanches isaboard a boat. Less than five kilometersfrom Porto, these creeks are lorded over byremarkable granite cliffs, formed by windand water erosion into eerie shapes resem-bling towers, columns, animals and humanfigures. Guy de Maupassant described themthis way: ‘‘I stopped stunned in front ofthese amazing rocks of pink granite, 400meters high, strange, tortured, eaten into bytime, bloody under the final fires of twilightand taking every form — like fantasticpeople out of a fairy tale, petrified by a su-pernatural power.’’

The Corseweb travel site (www.corsica.net/corsica) lists more than 450species of algae around the promontory ofGirolata alone; the waters there teem withgrouper, limpets and mullet. From 30 me-ters and deeper, divers see a wealth of redcoral, sponges, grouper and lobsters. In all,the Gulf of Porto offers 25 diving sites. Fiveminutes outside Porto, swimmers can seegrouper, octopus and rays among the un-derwater canyons of Monterosso. Thenearby Castagne creek is not deep, but itabounds with marine life. Farther down thecoast at Ficajola, divers can swim throughnarrow tunnels and emerge into forests ofblood-red coral. On the Gulf of Porto’s leftbank, Vardiola, a massive ochre and redgranite rock rises out of the waves; diverscan visit its white coral reefs. North of Porto,locals say Scopa offers the most interestingdiving, rich in flora and fauna, including lob-sters, cowries and moray eels. �

Unesco’s World Heritage sitesprotect more than 177 millionhectares (440 million acres) ofland and sea, according to Unescoand the International Union forConservation of Nature. Eighty-onecountries have at least one areadesignated as a natural WorldHeritage site. Australia leads, with44 million hectares or 31 percentof its area protected, followed byRussia (13 percent), Canada (12percent) and the United States (4percent). An average of 20 sites isadded to the World Heritage Listeach year, based on decisionsmade by the World HeritageCommittee, the body responsiblefor upholding the 1972 Convention.Visit http://whc.unesco.org

Diving toward the ocean floor on asingle breath is an ancient skillamong sponge fishermen. Calledfree diving, it requires extraordinarylevels of stamina; some divers canhold their breath for six minutes ormore. Scientists are studying howthis is possible. Oxygen-sparingadjustments made by the bodyunderwater include lowered heartrate and vasoconstriction. Theoriessay the human species emergedfrom water, and people come from aliquid environment at birth. Thehuman body apparently has anability to tap into this aquaticbackground and recall mammaliandiving reflexes.

But the body’s efforts are notenough for a successful free dive.Having high-tech help is vital, andthat now comes in the form of

Jaeger-LeCoultre’s MasterCompressor Diving Chronograph,the latest in the Swiss watchmanufacture’s contribution topushing back the limits ofunderwater discovery. PatrickMusimu, a 36-year-old Belgian, tookthe Jaeger-LeCoultre model to anincredible 209 meters (685 feet) ina single breath — the first man todo so. He held his breath for eightminutes and four seconds. Talentedas Musimu is, the achievement ishard to fathom without the MasterCompressor Diving. The watchfeatures a Pulsometer function, ascale indicating heartbeat perminute. Since free diving involvescontrolling and reducing one’s pulserate, the function is indispensablefor breath-holding divers in chartingthe limits of their cardiac rate.

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SPOTLIGHT | World Heritage on land and sea

The Gulf of Porto in Corsica: From red cliffs to turquoise waters, a natural ecological balance

EXPLORING | From diving to mountain-climbing

Site offers the double magic of land and sea

Free diving: Plunging into the ocean on a single breath

Natural World Heritage sites

Clear waters: The area offers 25 diving sites.

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The Gulf of Porto: Calanche of Piana, Gulf of Girolata,Scandola Reserve is a Unesco World Heritage

site on the French island of Corsica. With its granitecliffs, chestnut forests, maquis and

clear waters, the area is a stunning representativeof the Mediterranean coastline

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E very six years, the United NationsEducational, Scientific and CulturalOrganization (Unesco) provides peri-

odic reporting on its World Heritage sites,analyzing data that comes in from local sitemanagers around the world and reporting,region by region, to the World Heritage Com-mittee on conservation trends at listedsites. This process com-plements other monitor-ing and reporting me-chanisms. In the 2006periodic report for Euro-pean sites, the site man-agers of France’s Gulf of Porto stated thatthe area remains an ‘‘eminent representa-tive’’ of the Mediterranean coastline, ‘‘one ofthe spots that comes closest to a naturalecological balance, which makes it a re-markable reference.’’ Inscribed on the WorldHeritage List in 1983, and despite the con-stant increase in tourism since then, theGulf of Porto remains an outstanding ex-ample of a well-preserved natural site.

Located on Corsica’s west coast, theGulf of Porto is a vast, V-shaped bay com-prising the Calanche of Piana in the south,the harbor of Porto itself, the Gulf of Girolataand the Scandola Nature Reserve, whichlies on a promontory on the northern end.The 12,000 hectares (about 30,000 acres)of the World Heritage site offer countless

opportunities to see both land and marinewonders. The marine site comprises 4,000hectares, or one-third of the total.

The Calanche (plural of the Corsicancalanca, or creek) of Piana are pink graniterocks whose twisted, wind- and water-eroded shapes dominate the gulf. The Scan-dola Reserve is part of the Regional Natural

Park of Corsica, whoseclear waters let swim-mers see down to 35meters (115 feet) atsome places, andwhere numerous islets

and caves are home to rich underwater floraand fauna.

Nature lovers can discover the varied as-pects of this site on the remarkable island ofCorsica, known in French as the ‘‘Isle deBeauté’’ (Island of Beauty).

As its site managers noted, the Gulf ofPorto stands out in the Mediterranean,which, though diverse, does not have manynatural World Heritage areas. This makesthe Gulf of Porto important as a type of mar-ine site. Marine sites are of differing variet-ies — coastal areas, coral reefs and estuar-ies, for example — and it is the mostoutstanding examples within these charac-teristic categories that Unesco encouragescountries to propose as World Heritage, inorder to protect them for all time.

Since Unesco’s work does not end oncea site has been inscribed on the World Her-itage List, the six-year reporting — suppor -ted by case-by-case reporting as needsarise — allows the organization and theWorld Heritage Committee to keep an eyeon these sites. ‘‘It is one example of Un-esco’s monitoring activities,’’ explainsMechtild Rossler, Unesco’s chief of sectionfor Europe and North America.

Periodic reporting not only helps to dealwith problems on specific sites, but can alsoresolve difficulties shared by many WorldHeritage sites.

On the local level, for example, the 2006report cited surveys from the Gulf of Porto’smanagers who found a healthy awarenessof its natural heritage among visitors, busi-nesses, and local and state groups. ‘‘Thesite’s World Heritage status is, in particular,used by the tourism industry, specifically bytour operators for their boat rides to thesite,’’ Rossler says.

Parts of the site were listed as satisfac-tory, with managers noting good educationaland scientific activities taking place. But ona wider level, the report concluded that man-agement systems — in Europe, not just theGulf of Porto — need improvement. Accord-ing to Rossler, this includes visitor facilitiesand tourism management. ‘‘States whohave signed the World Heritage Convention

have been asked to follow up on all issuesdetected in the report,’’ she says. ‘‘This is anexample of the continuous monitoring re-quired for site management.’’

Periodic reporting likewise helps raisebroader awareness of natural disasters.Through it, Unesco coordinates risk man-agement. Across the Mediterranean, for ex-ample, climate change has meant highertemperatures, which can lead to forest fires,and this risk is particularly high in Corsica.

‘‘Coordination among countries and ex-change among site managers are key tofinding solutions,’’ Rossler says. ‘‘We workwith governments across the Mediter-ranean, not on a site specifically, but towardrisk-preparedness concerning all World Her-itage sites in the area, so each can benefitfrom the experience others have.’’

In November, the Greek government willinvite experts, representatives from the

World Heritage Centre and site coordinatorsfrom across Europe to Olympia, a World Her-itage site where fire destroyed part of the in-frastructure and museum last year. At-tendees will develop elements for amanagement plan they can use to be betterprepared not only for fires, but also for otherdisasters, like floods and earthquakes. Sitecoordinators, such as those from the Gulf ofPorto, can then return to their sites to trainlocal staff, including firefighters, on lessonslearned.

‘‘Such networking is what World Heritageis all about,’’ Rossler says. ‘‘It’s a shared ex-ercise — the legacy of humanity, not lawsput forward by one government. It’s wonder-ful to have governments helping each otheracross the Mediterranean, in countrieswhere they don’t have the same level of ca-pacity-building, experience or financial sup-port. That helps the sites very much.’’ �

Despite the increase intourism, it is a well-

preserved natural site

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MASTER COMPRESSOR DIVING PRO GEOGRAPHICWater-resistant to 300 metres (30 atm).

Manufacture Jaeger-LeCoultre,Vallée de Joux, Switzerland, since 1833.www.jaeger-lecoultre.com/dive