A high-level UNESCO delegation has wrapped up a three-day visit to Macedonia, with working meetings with President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova and Minister Ljutkov. The subject is an old one, yet still unresolved - the protection of the natural and cultural heritage of the Ohrid region.

The aim of the visit, according to the statement, is to strengthen cooperation and implement protection recommendations. The word „implementation" is the key one here - because recommendations for Ohrid have existed for years, and the problem was never their shortage, but their execution. UNESCO has long warned of illegal construction, unregulated development of the shoreline and pressure on the lake.

Ohrid is not defended with ceremonial meetings, but with decisions that will outlast the summer - and that is precisely where the difference between intent and result lies. Every delegation arrives, poses for photos, signs for cooperation, while on the ground the concrete keeps advancing toward the water. The question is not whether the authorities understand the importance of UNESCO status, but whether they are ready to make unpopular moves to keep it.

Because the alternative is well known and shameful - Ohrid has long been under threat of being placed on the list of endangered heritage. That is no abstract danger, but a concrete risk pushed back from visit to visit. And if protection stays at the level of meetings and photographs, the question won't be whether we lose the status, but when.