I read with interest your article about UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites and about Francesco Bandarin, who runs the World Heritage Center in Geneva (“The Limits of Soft Cultural Power,” September 12, 2009). Having been in touch with him and others in the agency in connection with Motovun or Montona in Croatia, which has been on the tentative list for World Heritage Sites since early 2007, I agree with the Geneva-based International Union for the Conservation of Nature, whose recent report suggests that the agency is “too hesitant to declare sites in peril, and too sensitive to the feelings of member states.” The problem with Motovun, a medieval hilltown surrounded by vineyards and olive groves, is that the Croatian government at all levels is a bit too directly involved in golf development that threatens to despoil the site. An excessive number of apartments, houses, and villas is likely to enrich only a few in or close to the government. The World Heritage Center would not get involved, though. All they have to offer by way of advice is closer cooperation with the government. Some advice, too.