Doha: The UNESCO World Heritage Committee, during its 48th session in Busan, South Korea, today added several new cultural and natural sites to the World Heritage List, recognizing locations that reflect the world's rich cultural and environmental diversity.

According to Qatar News Agency, among the newly-added sites is the Gdynia Modernist City Centre in Poland, located on the Baltic Sea coast. The site features urban blocks dating from the interwar period and represents the large-scale application of modernist principles in architectural design.

The committee also added Amazonia Theaters in Brazil, a property comprising two main components: the Theatro da Paz and Praca da Republica in Belem, and the Teatro Amazonas (Amazon Opera House) and Praca Sao Sebastiao in Manaus. These landmarks were built during the Amazon's Golden Age, a period of economic prosperity driven by the rubber boom between 1879 and 1912.

In addition, the committee added China's Changshan Archipelago Migratory Bird Sanctuary on the World Heritage List as a natural site. Located along the only maritime migration corridor of the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, the sanctuary serves as a vital stopover site where tens of millions of migratory birds replenish their energy as they cross the Bohai Sea. More than 140 species of migratory birds have been recorded there.

The 48th session of UNESCO's World Heritage Committee will continue through July 29. The committee's 21 members, elected from among 196 States Parties to the World Heritage Convention, are responsible for deciding which new sites are added to the World Heritage List and for monitoring the conservation status of sites already inscribed.