News

The mentees currently benefitting from the UNESCO Mentorship Programme for African Heritage professionals participated in a field mission as part of a workshop co-organized on 12 and 13 February 2024 by the UNESCO Regional Office in Dakar and ICCROM. This workshop aimed to support the regional and national focal points of West Africa with their Periodic Reporting, in particular to evaluate ...

Every year, on 5 May, we celebrate African World Heritage Day to honour the natural wonders and cultural legacies of Africa. From Mbanza Kongo, capital of the former Kingdom of Kongo in Angola, to the fortress of Fasil Ghebbi in the Gondar Region of Ethiopia, cultural sites across Africa bear witness to the continent’s multifaceted history, like vibrant strands woven into the tapestry of ...

This year, 2024, the World Heritage Residence Scholarship goes to German artist Paul Wiersbinski, Berlin, for his project entitled "The Perfect House". The project will connect together the World Heritage sites Decorated Farmhouses of Hälsingland and the German Berlin Modernism Housing Estates by artistically interweaving urban Berlin with rural Hälsingland. The project was inspired by the ...

Experts from East Africa gathered in Nairobi for a workshop to discuss current challenges posed at the World Heritage sites in danger in Kenya, Madagascar, and Tanzania. Africa, despite its rich and diverse cultural and natural heritage, remains the second least represented region on the World Heritage List. The continent hosts the highest number of endangered properties, with 14 out of the ...

In harmony with the African Union's theme of the year for 2024, “Educate and Skill Africa for the 21st Century,” the African World Heritage Fund (AWHF) invites African States Parties (particularly heritage professionals and institutions, civil society organisations, local communities and the youth) to participate in the celebration of the nineth edition of this international day under the ...

At its extended 45th session in September 2023 in Riyadh, the World Heritage Committee, in its Decision 45COM 7A.4, adopted the desired state of conservation for the removal of the Mount Nimba Strict Nature Reserve from the List of World Heritage in Danger (DSOCR). During the same session, the World Heritage Centre, in collaboration with IUCN, organized a brainstorming meeting with ...

The “My Heritage” short-film competition is back. The Arab Centre for World Heritage (ARC-WH) and the Heritage Commission in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in collaboration with the UNESCO Chair for World Heritage management and Sustainable Tourism in the Arab Region, is pleased to announce to invite you to participate in the third edition of the short-film competition “My Heritage.” In this ...

Inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1981 under criterion (x) referring to its unique biodiversity and exceptional ecosystems, the Niokolo-Koba National Park (Senegal) has been on the List of World Heritage in Danger since 2007, due to various disturbances to its biodiversity and ecosystems, as well as the emergence of development projects. It is in this context that UNESCO is ...

Inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1981, and placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger twice, from 1984 to 1988 and from 2000 to 2006, the Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary (Senegal) has benefitted from UNESCO's support since 2021 as part of the “Protection measures against the impacts of agricultural and agro-industrial projects in the Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary” ...

The Jodensavanne Archaeological Site: Jodensavanne Settlement and the Cassipora Creek Cemetery Twenty-five years after being included in the Tentative List of Suriname, this serial property was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2023. “The Jodensavanne Archaeological Site: Jodensavanne Settlement and Cassipora Creek Cemetery”, is comprised of two 17th-century component parts that are ...

In April 2023, during her visit to Chernihiv and her meeting with the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, committed to support efforts to rehabilitate the historic centre of Chernihiv, deeply affected in the early months of the war by the attacks from the Russian Federation. To draw up this important planning tool, a new mission of UNESCO and ...

On Thursday 4 April 2024, experts and managers from marine protected areas around the globe met online to exchange firsthand perspectives on tackling the effects of land-based pollution sources and water quality on coral reefs. The impacts of land-based pollution on coral reefs are significant and diverse, playing a major role in the degradation of reef ecosystems. Runoff containing ...

On 3 April 2024, the UNESCO World Heritage Secretariat organised a second Learning & Exchange workshop in the framework of the project entitled ‘Post COVID-19 World Heritage Site Management: Integration of Conservation, Tourism and Local Livelihood Strategies at World Heritage Sites’, funded by the government of Japan through the UNESCO/Japanese Funds-in-Trust. The workshop started with ...

In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, the global tourism industry faced significant setbacks, particularly affecting economies heavily reliant on tourism, like Seychelles. The pandemic showed the vulnerability of tourism, leading to a drastic decline of over 70% in foreign visitors to Seychelles in 2020. This downturn highlighted the nation's dependence on tourism revenue to sustain its ...

In a pivotal moment for global sustainable development, the UNESCO-EU Regional Preparatory Capacity-Building Workshop  successfully gathered representatives from 24 countries, emphasizing the critical role of enhanced data collection in achieving culture-driven sustainable development. In alignment with the 2022 MONDIACULT Declaration, which emphasizes the pivotal role of data collection and ...

World Heritage in the 21st Century: Building Capacities and Exploring Opportunities for Youth As an integral part of the 46th session of the World Heritage Committee and in the framework of the UNESCO World Heritage Education Programme, the Ministry of Culture through the Archaeological Survey of India, will host the World Heritage Young Professionals Forum 2024 under the theme of World ...

This is the story of an archaeological rescue operation of unprecedented scale. In the midst of the Cold War, under the aegis of UNESCO, around fifty countries managed to put aside their differences to save, together, the treasures of ancient Egypt. Threatened by the waters of the Aswan High Dam under construction, they risked being lost forever.  The Campaign for the Safeguarding of the ...

UNESCO and ICOMOS visited the Archaeological Ruins at Moenjodaro, Pakistan, in early March 2024 to monitor the restoration work and elaborate a strategy for drastic intervention in recovering from the disastrous rainfall of August 2022. Mohenjodaro, a world-renowned Indus civilisation metropolis dating back to the third millennium BCE, began to be excavated in 1922. From 1974 to 1997, UNESCO ...

Following the first case of Avian Influenza in the Galápagos, the Rapid Response Facility (RRF), a UNESCO World Heritage Centre and Fauna and Flora joint initiative has provided US$ 40,000 to support active surveillance of seabird populations, aiming to understand the extent and limit the spread of the potentially devastating virus. In mid-September 2023 the first case of H5N1 Avian ...

In a groundbreaking move aimed at fostering socio-economic development and preserving cultural heritage, the Governments of Japan and the Kindgom of Saudi Arabia provided support of the Rehabilitation of the Majestic Cinema theatre in Stone Town of Zanzibar, the United Republic of Tanzania and the Government of Zanzibar has now agreed on the strategy, methodology and business plan for the ...