The Vega Archipelago of Norway was inscribed on the World Heritage List as a cultural heritage at the 28th Session of the World Heritage Committee, scheduled from June 28 to July 7 in Suzhou, east China's Jiangsu Province.

A cluster of dozens of islands centered on Vega, just south of the Arctic Circle, forms a cultural landscape of 103,710-hectare, of which 6,930 is land.

The islands bear testimony to a distinctive frugal way of life based on fishing and the harvesting of the down of eider ducks in an inhospitable environment. There are fishing villages, quays, warehouses, eider houses which were built for eider ducks to nest in, farming landscapes, lighthouses and beacons. There is evidence of human settlement from the Stone Age on.

By the 9th century, the islands had become an important center for the supply of down which appears to have accounted for around a third of the islanders' income. The Vega Archipelago reflects the way fishermen and farmers have maintained a sustainable living and the contribution of women to eiderdown harvesting over the past 1,500 years.

Source: Xinhua