News

“Nan Madol: Ceremonial Centre of Eastern Micronesia” is a jewel in the Pacific that has inspired many stories and myths. There are more than 100 islets at the site, constructed with walls of basalt and coral boulders, upon which were built structures with walls up to eight meters high of columnar basalt that glistens in the sun. These ruins represent the ceremonial center of the Saudeleur ...

Addis Ababa, 5 November 2018: The Director of UNESCO Liaison Office to AU and UN ECA, and Representative to Ethiopia, Ms Ana Elisa Santana Afonso met with a delegation of the Orthodox Tewahido Church of Lalibela, led by His Holiness Aba Tsige Selassie, Head Administrator of the Rock-Hewn Churches of Lalibela. Begun in the 12th century, this complex of 11 churches was among the first cultural ...

From 18 to 22 October 2018, the World Heritage Centre undertook a technical mission to the Barotse Cultural Landscape, a site on the Tentative List of Zambia. The mission met with the local communities to identify suitable development projects compatible with the safeguarding of the cultural landscape, and to seek the support of the traditional custodians to nominate the site on the World ...

On 5 November 2018, a team of experts from the World Heritage Centre and IUCN arrived in Montenegro for a joint Advisory mission to the World Heritage property “Durmitor National Park.” The State Party of Montenegro invited the mission with the objectives to review a potential boundary modification and to assess the overall state of conservation of the World Heritage site. The mission ...

The World Heritage Office of the Historic Heritage Protection Directorate of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports of the Government of Spain is organizing the XII National Meeting of World Heritage Managers, hosted by the Luis Seoane Foundation from 6 to 8 of November 2018 in the city of Coruña. The meeting, celebrated annually since 2007, is a space for analysis, debate and ...

The national Technical Secretariats of the six countries belonging to the Qhapaq Ñan, Andean Road System continue their collaborative efforts in strengthening the conservation and management structure of this unique and complex World Heritage site, inscribed in 2014 as a serial cultural transboundary property crossing Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. In the months of ...

UNESCO gathered tourism and heritage experts at the Organization’s Headquarters on 29 October 2018 to examine the leading role that tourism and culture can play in fostering sustainable development in the EU and China. The EU-China High Level Conference on World Heritage and Sustainable Tourism was organized in the framework of the 2018 EU-China Tourism Year, an initiative led by the ...

UNESCO condemns the intentional destruction of the Ahmed Al-Faz Mosque and Mausoleum in Hodeida, located on the coast approximately 30km from the World Heritage property of the Historic Town of Zabid. The General Organization of Antiquities and Museums (GOAM) in Yemen confirmed, in a statement published on 23 October, that the building was destroyed by extremists on the previous day. The ...

For the first time, UNESCO World Heritage coral reef managers will partner with global climate resilience experts and local community stakeholders to build and embed comprehensive resilience strategies into their management of World Heritage sites. The project builds on the capacity of reef managers to work locally and enables a global network of flagship protected area managers to create ...

The project “Communities and reinforcement of the management of the Royal Palaces of Abomey World Heritage Site” financed by the Netherlands Funds-in-Trust was implemented from July 2017 to August 2018, in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture of Benin, the African World Heritage Fund (AWHF) and the School of African Heritage (EPA). The project aimed to strengthen the state of ...

The results have been released concerning the development of management strategies for the Silk Road corridors in Central Asia after the sub-regional meeting of the working group on preparation of the dossier of the Serial transnational nomination of the World Heritage "Silk Road: Fergana-Syrdarya Corridor" held on 2 October 2018 and a sub-regional seminar on the development of management ...

The UNESCO World Heritage Centre was saddened to learn of the passing of David Lowenthal, the American historian and geographer whose revolutionary work contributed to heritage study being recognized as an academic discipline. He argued that heritage was not history, but rather what people choose from history to define themselves.    Born in the United States, he lived most of his life in ...

Every year, disasters caused by natural hazards affect millions of people around the world. The resultant human losses are tragic and highlight the vulnerabilities shared by our societies. Recent events have illustrated the devastating effects of natural disasters. The State of Kerala in India, for example, experienced in August the worst episode of flooding since 1924. Many hundreds of ...

From 9 to 12 October 2018, World Heritage managers from the Africa and Arab region met at Sanganeb Marine National Park and Dungonab Bay – Mukkawar Island Marine National Park in Sudan. The meeting focused on sharing expertise in balancing conservation of the site's unique natural values with the reduction of poverty among local communities that are directly dependent on the World Heritage ...

The first China/Germany Cultural Exchange on Heritage Conservation for Sustainable Development, organized at the initiative of UNESCO, took place on 26-30 September 2018 in Berlin, Germany, and gathered international experts and stakeholders for an international reflection session on the role of culture as a vector of sustainable development on the international stage, today and in the ...

Every year some 300,000 elephants are killed by poachers in Africa for their tusks, and approximately 41 tons of pangolin scales were seized in Africa (in 2017), that is the equivalent of over 34,000 animals. On Sunday, 30 September 2018, the Democratic Republic of Congo organized a ceremony, in the presidential park of N’sele, 50 km from the centre of Kinshasa, to set free five grey parrots ...

Tourism is increasingly a major source of growth, employment and income for many of the world’s countries, particularly in emerging economies. However, when mismanaged, overwhelming numbers of visitors can damage ancient monuments and put intangible heritage at risk. World Tourism Day is an opportunity to reflect on the importance of protecting World Heritage and ensuring that tourism makes ...

For the first time, on 18-19 September 2018, members of the Liaison Group of Biodiversity-related Conventions (BLG) met with the Culture Conventions Liaison Group (CCLG) at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France. The occasion was the 13th meeting of the BLG, held to discuss ways to strengthen cooperation to fight against accelerating global biodiversity loss, especially in view of the ...

Today, on 24 September 2018, a group of experts from the World Heritage Centre and IUCN arrived in Warsaw to carry out a joint Reactive Monitoring mission to the transboundary World Heritage property “Białowieża Forest” (Belarus/Poland). Situated on the watershed of the Baltic and Black Seas, the World Heritage property is the site of an immense and biologically diverse primeval forest that ...

The Third Cycle of Periodic Reporting (2018 – 2024), a global World Heritage conservation monitoring exercise carried out in six-year cycles, begins this September with reporting in the Arab States region. World Heritage Site Managers and National Focal Points of the 84 World Heritage properties (76 cultural, 5 natural and 3 mixed sites in 18 State Parties) in the Arab States region will be ...