RUSSIAN FEDERATION

A beautiful UNESCO cover from Russia, depicting a minisheet celebrating the Lake Baikal. The Lake Baikal is situated in southern Siberia, between the federal subjects of Irkutsk Oblast to the northwest and the Buryatia to the southeast. Lake Baikal is the world's largest freshwater lake by volume, containing 22 to 23% of the world's fresh surface water. Lake Baikal has a maximum depth of 1,642 m and is the world's deepest lake. It is among the world's clearest lakes and is the world's oldest lake, at 25–30 million years. Lake Baikal is also the world's seventh-largest lake by surface area. Baikal is home to thousands of species of plants and animals, many of them endemic to the region. It is also home to Buryat tribes, who raise goats, camels, cattle, sheep, and horses on the eastern side of the lake, where the mean temperature varies from a winter minimum of −19 °C to a summer maximum of 14 °C. The region to the east of Lake Baikal is referred to as Transbaikalia or as the Transbaikal, and the loosely defined region around the lake itself is sometimes known as Baikalia. UNESCO declared Lake Baikal a World Heritage Site in 1996.

P. R. CHINA

POLAND

BRAZIL

This cover from Brazil depicts 2 se-tenant stamps celebrating 150 years of Elevator Lacerda,the oldest urban elevator in the world, located in Salvador de Bahia. The Historic Centre of Salvador de Bahia in Brazil, is a historic neighborhood in western Salvador, Bahia. It was the city's center during the Portuguese colonial period and was named for the whipping post in its central plaza where enslaved people from Africa were publicly beaten as punishment for alleged infractions. The Historic Centre is extremely rich in historical monuments dating from the 17th through the 19th centuries. Salvador was the first colonial capital of Brazil and the city is one of the oldest in the New World (founded in 1549 by Portuguese settlers). It was also one of the first slave markets on the continent, with slaves arriving to work on the sugar plantations. The area is in the older part of the upper city (Cidade Alta) of Salvador. It encompasses several blocks around the triangular Largo, and it is the location for music, dining and nightlife. It has a place on the national historic register and was named a world cultural center by UNESCO in 1985.

NETHERLANDS

A big cover with a big miniature sheet from Netherlands, celebrating the Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout. The Kinderdijk windmills are a group of 19 monumental windmills in the Alblasserwaard polder, in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. Most of the mills are part of the village of Kinderdijk in the municipality of Molenlanden, and one mill, De Blokker, is part of the municipality of Alblasserdam. Built in 1738 and 1740, to keep water out of the polder, it is the largest concentration of old windmills in the Netherlands and one of the best-known Dutch tourist sites. The mills are listed as national monuments and the entire area is a protected village view since 1993. They have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997, and as such are officially named as the Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout.

SPAIN

This cover from Spain features the EUROPA 2024 stamp which theme is "Underwater Flora and Fauna". A photograph of the underwater forest of the Posidonia oceanica meadows in the Spanish Ses Salines Natural Reserve (Ibiza) illustrates the Spanish Europa stamp in 2024. Ibiza is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea off the eastern coast of Spain. It is 150 kilometres from the city of Valencia. It is the third largest of the Balearic Islands, an autonomous community of Spain. The coast of Ibiza is home to posidonia oceanica, a seagrass only found in the Mediterranean that supports a diverse coastal and marine ecosystem. The island also contains numerous Phoenician ruins, and the fortified and walled older portions of the city date to the 16th century. Ibiza is a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1999.

BRAZIL

A cover from Brazil depicting a complete set with Flowers from the UNESCO natural World Heritage site Cerrado Protected Areas: Chapada dos Veadeiros and Emas National Park. The site (inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2001) is located in the Brazilian central plateau in the State of Goias. Both parks help protect the Cerrado biome, one of the oldest and most diverse ecosystems in the world. For millennia, these sites have served as refuge for many rare and endemic species of fauna and flora, including during periods of climatic fluctuations. Both sites remain essential for maintaining the biodiversity in the Cerrado, especially in any future climate change scenario. The flora of the Cerrado is rich. It includes between 350 and 400 species of vascular plants per hectare, including many endemic plants. The property also contains populations of large mammals, including the giant anteater, giant armadillo, maned wolf, jaguar and pampas deer, but also the rhea, the largest bird of South America. The site is also extremely important in maintaining the hydrological regime as, due to its geological features and soils, it is proving to be a key area for aquifer recharge and the alimentation of several watercourses that supply power to the Amazon basin and the Pantanal, in the basin of La Plata.