UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, maintains a worldwide list of protected natural paradises and cultural treasures that are considered to be of particular value to future generations. In recent years the organization has evaluated the candidacy of the Dolomites as a Natural World Heritage Site. This effort has had the support of the five Italian provinces of Bolzano, Trento, Belluno, Udine and Pordenone, over whose territory the Dolomites extend, for a specific purpose: to obtain this prestigious recognition from UNESCO.
The IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) was commissioned by UNESCO to assess the compatibility of the characteristics of the Dolomites with the criteria for admission as a Natural World Heritage Site. The result? The Dolomites are unique in terms of geology, biology and scenery and therefore are unlike any other mountains on Earth. The IUCN stated that “The Dolomites are generally considered to have some of the most beautiful mountain scenery in the world, even though they don’t have the highest peaks or the largest glaciers.” It was their esthetic properties, extraordinary beauty, unique geographic properties and the abundance of their flora, with more than 2,400 diverse species, that convinced the IUCN commission. In its concluding report, the IUCN proposed that UNESCO add the Dolomites to its list of top natural sites. At its 33rd annual congress in Seville on 26th June, 2009, UNESCO declared the Dolomites a Natural World Heritage Site. The Dolomites are now listed as boasting one of the 50 most beautiful scenic areas in Europe, and one of 199 worldwide.
Thanks to the existence of vast natural parks, national parks and Natura 200 protected zones, which have preserved the central areas of the Dolomites for decades, UNESCO has granted these mountains the designation of Natural World Heritage Site. These areas include the group formed by Mounts Pelmo and Croda da Lago (Veneto Region); the Marmolada; the group formed by the Pale di San Martino, Pale di San Lucano and Belluno Dolomites; the group formed by the Friuli Dolomites and the Oltre Piave; the Northern Dolomites, located between Alto Adige and Veneto, including the Cadini, the Sesto Dolomites, the Ampezzo Dolomites, the Fanes, Senes and Braies Dolomites and the Puez-Odle Group; the group formed by Sciliar, Catinaccio and Latemar, bridging Alto Adige and Trentino; the Brenta Dolomites, the westernmost, all in the Trentino region; and the Rio delle Foglie, an extraordinary canyon, unique in the world, with multicolored rock stratifications and countless prehistoric animal fossils. The entire area is 142,000 hectares, with an additional buffer zone of more than 90,000 hectares.
The buffer zones have been used for a number of decades by UNESCO as a way to provide external protection to the central Natural World Heritage Site areas. In this strip of land construction, infrastructure and urbanization activities that might compromise the integrity of the central areas are curtailed or prohibited. For example, there are restrictions on the height of buildings and the width of streets. In the specific case of the Dolomites, the IUCN stated in its concluding report that like the central areas 98 percent of the buffer zone areas located in protected natural reserves. 
 
Worldwide, 199 scenic areas are on the UNESCO List of Natural World Heritage Sites. In Italy, the Dolomites are the second area of this type, joining the Aeolian Islands, which were added to the list in 2000.