After four years of voting, 440 possible choices have been whittled down to 7. The provisional winners of the New7Wonders of Nature campaign have just been announced.
Here are the new 7 natural wonders of the world.
Amazon Rainforest i n South America
Halong Bay in Vietnam
Iguazu Falls in Argentina and Brazil
Jeju Island in South Korea
Komodo National Park in Indonesia
Puerto Princesa Underground River in the Philippines
Table Mountain in South Africa
New7Wonders.com notes that the winners list could change. The campaign had to count millions of votes and they will do a recount to make sure that the 7 locations were correctly chosen.
USA Today reports that a total of 220 countries entered 440 candidates in the New7Wonders campaign. The campaign, was launched in 2007, required countries to pay a $199 entry fee. The campaign has asked for additional money in the last several months to help with marketing and licencing fees.
Environmental campaigner and writer Tony Juniper told the Guardian:
“The idea of a global participatory process to engage millions of people in thinking through a list of top seven natural wonders of the world strikes me as a good idea… Charging countries fees to promote marketing is not, especially when they are developing countries and this was not part of the original offer put to them.”
The New7Wonders campaign denies that it charged exorbitant fees for branding.
What do you think of the new 7 natural wonders of the world?
N7W founder Bernard Weber said:
“So many breathtakingly beautiful, natural places are still quite unknown to many… From waterfalls to fjords, rainforests to mountain peaks, freshwater lakes to volcanoes, we are discovering together the incredible beauty and variety of our planet.”
Are you planning a globetrotting trip?
amazon rainforest pic via shutterstock