News

On Friday 31 January 2014, UNESCO joined forces with the African Union Commission to raise awareness and funds for the African World Heritage Fund (AWHF) during the African Union (AU) Heads of State luncheon at the AU Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Participants pledged a total of 3,050,000 USD in support of the AWHF Endowment Fund. 54 Member States of the African Union were invited ...

The UNESCO World Heritage Centre has taken note of information provided by individuals and civil society organizations concerning the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage site, and thanks them for their considerations and concerns. The UNESCO World Heritage Centre has received a request from the Australian Government seeking the approval of the World Heritage Committee for a minor ...

The Banc d’Arguin National Park (Mauritania) and The Wadden Sea (Germany /The Netherlands) are the most critical sites for migratory birds on the East Atlantic Flyway and are intimately connected in a unique and fascinating way. The Wadden Sea provides support to migratory birds as a staging, moulting and wintering area. Every year, approximately 30% of the estimated 7 million wading birds ...

The UNESCO/Korea Funds-in-Trust project, “Support for the Preparation of the World Heritage Serial Nomination for the Silk Roads in South Asia,” was officially approved last July 2013 and has now launched operational activities, in the form of consultation and training meetings, both in Nepal and Bhutan in October and November 2013, respectively. This undertaking will highlight a ...

The Regional Secretariat Northwest Europe of the Organization of World Heritage Cities (OWHC), one of the organization’s 8 regional secretariats, has recently published a position paper on “Safeguarding and Further Developing World Heritage Cities”. Based on the experiences of its member cities, the paper addresses the challenges and experimented hands-on solutions to ...

UNESCO has welcomed confirmation from French-based oil and gas corporation Total that it will refrain from prospecting or exploiting oil and gas in natural sites inscribed on the World Heritage List, saying this was an encouraging sign for World Heritage conservation. In a letter sent earlier this month to UNESCO, Total’s Directeur délégué, Relations avec les ONG et la Société civile (Vice ...

The World Heritage Committee, at its last meeting in June 2013, expressed concern for the Great Barrier Reef and requested Australia ensure that the property remains well protected. We received a report on the state of conservation from the Australian government this week. We are currently reviewing this report and all other available information regarding developments concerning the ...

The Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, today expressed grave concern about the damage to Egypt’s Museum of Islamic Art, following the reported explosion of a car near the Police Security Directorate, which is located at Port Said Street in Cairo, in front of the main entrance of the Museum. “I firmly condemn this attack and the destruction it has caused to the ...

The millennial temples of Angkor with their monumental architecture, infinitely fine bas-reliefs, enduring spiritual significance and complex irrigation system constitute one of the most impressive success stories of the World Heritage Convention. The symbol of a whole nation, the 400km2 site lay fallow in the early 1990s. While monks continued to pray at many temples in the site, ...

Two World Heritage sites in Azerbaijan and three in Belgium have been given "enhanced protection" status by the Committee for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, which held its eighth meeting at UNESCO Headquarters from 18-19 December 2013. The properties, which have been granted this status, are the Walled City of Baku with the Shirvanshah’s Palace and ...

Happy New Year from the UNESCO World Heritage Centre International Year of Small Island Developing States (SIDS)World Heritage fosters sustainable development. For SIDS, sustainable development is not a choice, but a question of survival.-->

The proceedings of the International Colloquium on the conservation of World Heritage Earthen Architecture have been published in the latest edition of the UNESCO World Heritage Paper Series: Earthen Architecture in Today’s World, thanks to the generous support of the Italian Funds in Trust to UNESCO. The Colloquium took place at UNESCO Headquarters on 17 and 18 December 2012 - the ...

The World Heritage site in Bamiyan has received further support today with the Government of the Republic of Korea committing to provide US$5.4 to build a museum and cultural centre. The signing of the agreement saw the participation of H.E. Dr. Sayed Makhdoum Raheen, Minister of Information and Culture, H.E. Mr. Cha Youngcheol, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to Afghanistan, and Mr. ...

UNESCO dispatched an expert mission to the Philippines from 4 to 11 December following the massive earthquake and powerful typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda), which successively struck the central region of the country in October and early November 2013. The goal of the mission was to assist the Government and people of the Philippines in assessing the impact of the disasters on immovable, movable, and ...

The UNESCO World Heritage Centre and Panasonic Corporation have released the 2014 World Heritage calendar. Featuring stunning photographs of World Heritage sites from around the world, this popular calendar can be used in paper, online and tablet app versions. UNESCO and Panasonic have been creating wall calendars since 1995 and a web version since 2010. The wall calendar includes brief ...

Ádám Riba, from Hungary, the laureate of this year’s Panasonic Eco Picture Diary award, was one of the 28 children from 11 countries who were given a three-day trip to Paris and a visit to UNESCO for their participation in the Eco Picture Diary on 5 December. Three-hundred thousand children from all over the world took part in the contest which requires children ...

UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova today paid tribute to former South African President Nelson Mandela, who died on Thursday night, 5 December. “Nelson Mandela was truly a giant among men,” Irina Bokova said. “He not only changed South Africa’s history, he changed the world and made it a better place. He taught us all a lesson on the power of peace and  reconciliation;  the importance of ...

Available for iPad, Android and Kindle Fire tablets, this new app allows you to download World Heritage magazine. Lavishly illustrated, and published quarterly since 1996 in English, French and Spanish, World Heritage is UNESCO’s official publication devoted to sites inscribed on the World Heritage List and their conservation. With the app, not only can you read exclusive articles ...

Published on the 40th anniversary of the World Heritage Convention, this thematic collection of case studies provides a thorough understanding of World Heritage sites and their Outstanding Universal Value in the context of sustainable development. It is now available in French and Korean versions. The case studies describe twenty-six thematically, typologically and regionally diverse World ...

The 24 members of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage will meet in Baku (Azerbaijan) from 2 to 7 December 2013 for the eighth ordinary session to review the progress made by the States Parties on the legal, regulatory and institutional measures taken to safeguard the intangible cultural heritage in their countries. Over ...