giovedì 12 febbraio 2015

FRANCOBOLLI PER IL PATRIMONIO UNESCO


Ormai nella buca delle lettere non si riceve altro che opuscoli pubblicitari, offerte 3x2/sottoprezzo/quasi gratis dei supermercati (poi alla fine  non sai neanche dove andare e il risparmio lo butti in benzina!); neanche più il brivido di una bolletta qualsivoglia visto che per risparmiare le spese di spedizione sempre più spesso le bollette arrivano via internet!
Ma per fortuna che almeno a Natale, Pasqua e magari per un compleanno, c’è ancora chi preferisce spedire per posta i propri auguri con un bel cartoncino pieno di immagini e colori ed il tocco affettuoso di una firma a penna.
Per fortuna che per noi nostalgici (e tantissimi collezionisti!) esistono ancora i francobolli ed il Canada ne stampa di straordinariamente belli per qualità e soggetti illustrati.
Basta ricordare l’impegno di CANADA POST lo scorso anno di emettere francobolli celebrativi di luoghi di interesse naturalistico onorati di essere inclusi fra i siti UNESCO. L’iniziativa, che prevede nei prossimi 4 o 5 anni di completare la serie a comprendere gli altri attuali ed eventuali futuri siti Unesco, è nata a seguito di numerose richieste da parte dei canadesi di esaltare e promuovere maggiormente i panorami tipici della nazione.
NAHANNI NATIONAL PARK, Northwest Territories - GROS MORNE NATIONAL PARK, Newfoundland and Labrador - MIGUASHA NATIONAL PARK, Québec - PARCHI DELLE MONTAGNE ROCCIOSE, Alberta and British Columbia - JOGGINS FOSSIL CLIFFS, Nova Scotia.
Un’altra  emissione di CANADA POST celebra altri luoghi dei 17 siti UNESCO canadesi.
Tra i 5 francobolli che celebrano luoghi di interesse culturale (che vanno a ruba tra i collezionisti essendone stato stampati soltanto 1 milione di esemplari) due sono quelle a tariffa internazionale: uno rappresenta i  totem SGANG GWAAY del British Columbia e l’altro il CANALE RIDEAU di Ottawa. Gli altri 3 sono destinati alle spedizioni negli Stati Uniti ed illustrano LUNENBURG in Nova Scotia, GRAND-PRÉ in Nova Scotia, HEAD-SMASHED-IN-BUFFALO-JUMP in Alberta.

www.postescanada.ca : They’re wild, rugged, breathtakingly beautiful and a fascinating portal to the past – and not just because Canadians think so. These treasures of Canada have become UNESCO World Heritage sites and are celebrated in this multi-year stamp series, which will include both definitive and commemorative stamps.
Canada’s 17 World Heritage sites are deemed so valuable for their natural riches and cultural significance that they are recognized internationally. We introduce the series with five domestic stamps. Travel the rapids and whirlpools of the South Nahanni River in Nahanni National Park, scale the monumental peaks of the Canadian Rocky Mountains, and read the history of the Earth in the magma crust of Gros Morne National Park or in the fossil beds of Joggins Fossil Cliffs and Miguasha National Park.
During the gold rush in what was to become Nahanni National Park World Heritage Site (Northwest Territories), prospectors failed to find their fortune, but discovered an incredibly varied landscape. Virginia Falls and the twists of Hell’s Gate were sculptered by the last ice age.
The pristine ridges and cliffs, bogs and tundra, ocean inlets and lakes of Gros Morne National Park (Newfoundland and Labrador) might be stunning, but this site’s World Heritage status was granted due to what’s hidden underground – a perfect example of plate tectonics, proof the Earth’s continents have joined and separated repeatedly over the eons. Once-liquid magma that filled the gap between plates of Earth’s crust remains clearly visible in the cliffs of Gros Morne’s Western Brook Pond.
Imagine the palm trees! Nearly 400 million years ago, today’s Miguasha National Park (Québec) on the Gaspé Peninsula was once a tropical estuary. The fossil beds of the Escuminac Formation, exposed in a seaside cliff provide a rare portrait of Devonian life – including 21 species of fish fossils that have made Miguasha famous.
Nearly 200 fossil species found in the Joggins Fossil Cliffs reveal the world’s most complete record of terrestrial life from the Pennsylvanian Period (the Coal Age), over 300 million years ago. Here we find fossilized reptiles and amniotes, the first vertebrates to reproduce on land, marking one of the most significant events in the evolution of life on Earth.
Every year, more than nine million people visit the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks along the Alberta-British Columbia border. These include Banff – Canada’s first park preserve – Jasper, Kootenay and Yoho national parks as well as Mount Robson, Mount Assiniboine and Hamber provincial parks (British Columbia). On her choice of photograph to depict this iconic landscape, designer Lara Minja admits that from a climber’s bird’s-eye view, one realizes the vastness of the surrounding mountain range “and the endless possibilities of discovery.”
Minja points out that her overall approach included “contrasts and comparisons in scale, colour, shape, and texture of the environmental elements, both within individual stamps and across the stamp series.”
For these reasons, we think this stamp series will invite Canadians to discover more about the wonders of their homeland and explore these sites as they’re seen through the eyes of the world.

The new stamps celebrate five of Canada’s 17 UNESCO sites and are a result of requests by Canadians for more stamps featuring Canadian landscapes, according to Jim Phillips, director of stamp services at Canada Post. In the next three to four years, Phillips says Canada Post will issue commemorative stamps of all the current and future sites.
In the current package of five, there are two international-rate stamps: one of totems from British Columbia’s SGang Gwaay and one of Ottawa’s Rideau Canal. The remaining three United States-rate stamps feature landscapes in Lunenburg, N.S., Grand-Pré, N.S. and Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, Alta. Phillips says collectors should buy them quickly as less than one million were printed.

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