The Pitons, cirques and remparts region of Reunion Island was included on Unesco’s World Heritage List in 2010.

The classified property covers an area of over 100,000 hectares, or 42% of the surface area of Réunion Island. The classified area includes the Piton de la Fournaise massif, the Piton des Neiges massif and the three cirques: the cirque de Salazie, the cirque de Cilaos, the cirque de Mafate and their surrounding slopes. Urban areas included in the classified area are excluded due to the impact of human activity on the environment. This includes Cilaos and the surrounding area, Salazie and the surrounding area, and part of Plaine des Palmistes.

Unesco has thus recognized the exceptional universal value of a large part of Réunion Island. It is for its spectacular landscape of unparalleled beauty, but above all for its abundant flora with a sometimes very high rate of endemism, unique within the Mascarene archipelago, that Reunion Island has entered the very closed circle of 266 natural sites classified as World Heritage Sites. The classified area coincides with that of the Parc National de La Réunion, created in 2007, to which are added the Piton d’Anchaing in the Salazie cirque, the Piton de Sucre and La Chapelle in the Cilaos cirque, Grande Chaloupe in the north and Mare Longue in the south.

Selection criteria

Criterion (vii): The combination of volcanism, tectonic landslides and erosion by heavy rains and rivers has resulted in a rugged and spectacular landscape of striking beauty, dominated by two volcanoes, the dormant Piton des Neiges and the extremely active Piton de la Fournaise. Other key features of the landscape include the “remparts” – steep rock walls of varying age and geological nature, and the “cirques”, which can be described as massive natural amphitheaters of dizzying height and verticality. The property features deep, partially forested gorges and escarpments, with subtropical rainforests, fog forests and moors, all forming a mosaic of ecosystems and remarkable, highly aesthetic landscape features.

Criterion (x): The property is a global center of plant diversity with a high degree of endemism. It contains the most important remaining natural habitats for the conservation of terrestrial biodiversity in the Mascarene Islands, including a range of rare forest types. Given the significant and partly irreversible human impacts on the environment in the Mascarene archipelago, the property is the last refuge for the survival of a large number of endemic, threatened and endangered species.

Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity

Maloya, classified in 2009

“Maloya is a form of music, song and dance unique to Reunion Island. Mixed from the outset, Maloya was created by slaves of Malagasy and African origin on the sugar plantations, before spreading to the entire population of the island.

Once a dialogue between a soloist and a choir accompanied by percussion, Maloya today takes on increasingly varied forms, both in terms of lyrics and instruments (introduction of djembes, synthesizers, drums).

Sung and danced on stage, it mixes with rock, reggae and jazz, and inspires poetry and slam. Once dedicated to the ritual worship of ancestors, Maloya gradually became a song of lament and vindication for slaves and, for the past thirty years, a music representative of Reunion’s identity. Maloya accompanies all cultural, political and social events on the island, transforming it into a vehicle for political demands.

Today, it owes its vitality to some 300 registered groups, including some world-renowned artists, and to specialized music teaching at the Conservatoire de Musique de La Réunion.

A factor of identity, an illustration of cultural blending processes, a bearer of values and a model of integration, Maloya has been weakened by sociological change and the disappearance of its great figures and ancestor worship”.

Committee decision

“Maloya has been passed down from generation to generation, adapting to the social context of Reunion Island and providing the communities involved with a sense of identity and continuity;

The inscription of Maloya on the Representative List contributes to the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage by reinforcing the production methods of traditional instruments and their transmission in schools, and by promoting respect for cultural diversity and human creativity;

The application presents recent safeguarding measures such as support for artists to disseminate the element, and proposed measures such as research work in various fields, the organization of classes and workshops under the auspices of Reunion’s education services.”

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World Heritage Selection Criteria

To be included on the World Heritage List, sites must be of outstanding universal value and meet at least one of the ten selection criteria. In bold, the criteria used to classify the property in La Réunion.

i. represent a masterpiece of human creative genius;

ii. demonstrate a considerable exchange of influences during a given period or in a given cultural area, on the development of architecture or technology, monumental arts, town planning or landscape design;

iii. bear unique or at least exceptional witness to a cultural tradition or civilization, living or extinct;

iv. offer an outstanding example of a type of building or architectural or technological ensemble or landscape illustrating one or more significant periods in human history;

v. be an outstanding example of a traditional human settlement, land or sea use, which is representative of a culture (or cultures), or of human interaction with the environment, especially when the latter has become vulnerable under the impact of irreversible change;

vi. be directly or materially associated with events or living traditions, ideas, beliefs or artistic and literary works of outstanding universal significance. (The Committee considers that this criterion should preferably be used in conjunction with other criteria);

vii. represent natural phenomena or areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance;

viii. be eminently representative examples of major stages in the earth’s history, including evidence of life, of ongoing geological processes in the development of landforms, or of geomorphic or physiographic features of great significance ;

ix. be eminently representative examples of the ecological and biological processes involved in the evolution and development of terrestrial, aquatic, coastal and marine ecosystems and communities of plants and animals;

x. contain the most representative and important natural habitats for in situ conservation of biological diversity, including those containing threatened species of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science or conservation.

Source: UNESCO.