The Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC) announced in 2022 the continuation of the construction of a long-delayed residential building project near the Guia Lighthouse, and the Concern Group for the Protection of the Guia Lighthouse urged UNESCO once again in a letter yesterday to stop the project, saying: “We request the Advisory Bodies to the World Heritage Committee to review urgently this secret Heritage Impact Assessment…and propose mitigation measures to reduce the negative impacts of this building on the landscape and the visual integrity of the World Heritage site”.
The construction project, which has been suspended for over a decade, is scheduled to resume next month.
2022’s press conference hosted by the government-appointed Cultural Heritage Council noted that in line with the UNESCO requirements, the total height of the building will not exceed 81.32 metres, with the originally planned concrete façade having been replaced with a glass-aluminium cladding.
After the lighthouse was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2005, an executive order, gazetted in 2008, restricted the height of buildings surrounding the lighthouse to a maximum of 52.50 metres.
In its letter released by the activist group yesterday, it criticised the local government’s “insufficient” efforts in protecting the Guia Lighthouse, saying: “With the guidance of UNESCO, the Macau government decided in 2008 that the height of the building on Calçada do Gaio should be reduced to 52.5 metres,” stressing that the future building’s height of about 80 metres would cause “permanent and irreversible” damage to the landscape and visual integrity of the World Cultural Heritage.
The group also urged UNESCO, which is based in Paris, to propose to the local government a range of remedial measures, with the aim of “reducing the negative impact on the visual integrity of the Guia Lighthouse by future 90-metre-high buildings on Avenida do Dr Rodrigo Rodrigues”.
The letter called for the necessity of public participation and transparency in World Heritage protection.
This file photo taken in 2021 shows the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Guia Lighthouse. – Photo: MPDG
