Official Record

Seven Natural Wonders was established in 2008 with the mission of promoting and protecting the original 7 Natural Wonders of the World.  The world is full of amazing wonders of nature that warranted expanding the recognition by identifying the natural wonders of each continent.

How were the World Wonders established?

The original vision for the 7 Natural Wonders of the World came from a CNN Reporter.  This reporter did not identify and report on their favorite nature attractions.  This investigative reporter leveraged statistical significance to determine each wonder of nature with a couple of unique differences.  The Aurora Borealis was selected as a wonder of nature because it truly represented a natural phenomena.  Whenever the aurora borealis is witnessed, it leaves the viewer standing in awe and wonder.

Paricutin Volcano is another difference, but still statistically significant.  It was selected because it represented the world’s youngest volcano and its birth was witnessed by modern day humankind. The original and official Seven Natural Wonders of the World include:

• Aurora Borealis
• Grand Canyon
• Great Barrier Reef
• Harbor of Rio de Janeiro
• Mount Everest
• Paricutin Volcano
• Victoria Falls

How were the Continent Wonders selected?

Recognizing that our world is full of many more natural wonders than just these seven, Seven Natural Wonders launched a campaign to establish a subset of wonders across the different continents.  This campaign would bring the total of wonders to 49.

Under the counsel or UNESCO, Seven Natural Wonders leveraged members of the IUCN, conservation, educational, and tourism experts to vote and select the 7 Natural Wonders for each continent.  The Declaration Committee represents many of the type of experts that evaluated statistical and historical significance to determine which wonders deserved the designation.

A public vote was collected simultaneously for two reasons.  First, to see if there were any differences.  Second, to serve as a potential tie breaker between two wonders sitting at spot 7 and 8.  The good news is that the public voting followed in alignment with the expert evaluations and there was no need for a tie break to occur.

What about the New7Wonders campaign?

The New7Wonders campaign first launched a campaign to establish a new 7 Wonders of the World.  This made sense because 6 of the original 7 Wonders of the World were no longer in existence.  The problem with this campaign is that it avoided statistical significance and focused on financial sponsorship, related transactions and social media campaigns that were highly financially supported by some countries and not by others.  It was a good idea but it was wrongfully associated with financial transactions versus what was truly the best Wonders of the World.

New7Wonders then elected to establish a new 7 Wonders of Nature.  The first problem with this campaign occurs with the reality that whereas the original man-made wonders were no longer in existence, the original 7 Natural Wonders are all still here.

Seven Natural Wonders does not honor the validity of the New7Wonders campaign.  The primary reason is because that campaign was connected to financial influence.  Wonder Candidates had to receive “sponsors” who paid for a given wonder to be considered and remain in the contest.  As the campaign continued, potential wonder candidates had to pay additional fees as they moved closer to the close of the campaign.

A second factor that invalidates the significance of the New7Wonders designation is that the public could come back and vote over and over.  Some countries and tourism departments became highly engaged in promoting public voting and encouraging people to vote again and again.

Some countries, who potentially had a more deserving wonder of nature, chose not to “sponsor” or spend public funds to promote their candidate.  Collectively, winners were granted to those who invested financially – this is NOT a true representation of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World.