Cliffs of Moher shortlisted for new 7 Wonders of Nature

It will involve a jury panel narrowing the shortlist before another round of public voting to decide the final new 7 Wonders of Nature.

More than 440 nominations were received since the selection process opened in 2007.

The Grand Canyon and the Great Barrier Reef are also among finalists.

The Amazon rain forest, Dead Sea and Kilimanjaro in Africa were among the others announced today by Swiss adventurer Bernard Weber.

Weber’s organisation said a panel of experts chose the 26 finalists from 77 nominees that gained the most votes in an early round of polling.

The panel chaired by Federico Mayor, former chief of UNESCO, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, picked the finalists depending on geographical balance, diversity and the importance to human life, Weber said.

He said he was happy to see that the nominees include places that lie in more than one country, such as the Dead Sea or the Amazon rain forest, which makes people work together across borders.

“Already from the nomination phase, we see the enthusiasm of big countries,” Weber said, adding that particular high numbers of votes have come in from Indonesia.

High voter participation has come from other Asian countries, including India, Bangladesh and Vietnam, as well as from Latin America, he said.

Weber declined to give any numbers of votes so far. However, the organisation plans to release detail about voter profiles later, he added. Registration on the website aims to prevent people from voting twice.

“US voters’ participation is always quite high up,” he said.

Africa, where most people vote by mobile phones, has had the biggest increase in votes over the last few weeks, Weber said.

The finalists also include Azerbaijan’s Mud Volcanoes, Lebanon’s Jeita Grotto and Germany’s Black Forest.

The site is at : http://www.new7wonders.com/