News

On 12 July 2025, the World Heritage Committee inscribed The Archaeological Landscape of 17th Century Port Royal, Jamaica on the World Heritage List. This decision marks a key milestone for Jamaica and the wider English-speaking Caribbean, coming a decade after the inscription of the Blue and John Crow Mountains as the country’s first World Heritage site. The Committee is one of the two ...

The 47th session of the World Heritage Committee came to a close in Paris, France, with the inscription of 26 new cultural and natural properties on UNESCO's World Heritage List. Once again this year, the spotlight was on African heritage, with the inclusion of 4 new sites from the continent and the removal of three others from the List of World Heritage in Danger. "With 196 States ...

UNESCO, the Church of England Pensions Board, Greenbank, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and WWF call on investors to adhere to industry commitments and ensure World Heritage Site protection. UNESCO and its partners today released a report which shows the extent to which extractive industries are encroaching upon UNESCO World Heritage sites. The report, “Extractive ...

Site managers and park rangers from Costa Rica and Panama responsible for the transboundary World Heritage site of Talamanca Range-La Amistad Reserves/La Amistad National Park gathered from 8 to 11 July 2025 to discuss how to enhance sustainable tourism at the site. Organized in the framework of the UNESCO project ‘Communities for Heritage – Latin America and the Caribbean’, financed by ...

UNESCO has launched the Guidance on Wind and Solar Energy Projects in a World Heritage Context, which is the updated and extended version of an existing online Guidance which was focusing first on wind energy. The new edition continues to offer practical tools and provides advice to align renewable energy development with the protection of World Heritage properties, thus supporting States ...

The UNESCO World Heritage Committee, meeting in Paris (France), decided to remove three properties located in Madagascar, Egypt and Libya from the List of World Heritage in Danger. These removals are the result of extensive efforts by States Parties, with UNESCO's support, to significantly reduce threats to these sites. When sites are removed from the List of World Heritage in Danger, it ...

Within the framework of the UNESCO/Netherlands Fund-in-Trust project “Strengthening capacities for the documentation and conservation of Properties on the List of World Heritage in Danger in Iraq”, a training workshop was organized by the World Heritage Centre and the UNESCO Office in Iraq, at the Erbil Citadel from 29 April to 8 May 2025. This workshop brought together nineteen participants, ...

The latest edition of the World Heritage Map is now available to order! This new design, poster-sized wall map features all 1,223 World Heritage properties, illustrated with stunning photographs from across the globe. This map offers a visual journey through the richness of World Heritage sites, the various countries where they are located and key data. The featured image on this year’s map ...

A new analysis by UNESCO and World Resources Institute (WRI) reveals that 73% of World Heritage sites are highly exposed to water-related hazards, such as drought, water stress, or riverine and coastal flooding. Strengthening water stewardship is essential to protect these sites and the communities and ecosystems they sustain. A Precious Resource Under Growing Threat Water-related ...

UNESCO World Heritage Centre has launched a groundbreaking new report Climate Change in Mediterranean World Heritage Cities during a high-level online event attended by over 140 participants from international organisations, national authorities, academia, and civil society. The report addresses the intersection of three important concerns around impacts of climate change on cultural ...

First capacity-building workshop held as part of the Communities for Heritage project in Cuba. As part of the regional project “Latin America and the Caribbean: Strengthening capacities for resilient communities through sustainable tourism and heritage safeguarding,” UNESCO held the workshop “Communities for Heritage: Heritage Safeguarding and Sustainable Tourism” in the historic center of ...

UNESCO Regional Office for Eastern Africa, in collaboration with the National Museums of Kenya and the Kenya Wildlife Service, officially held the first inception meeting on the project titled “safeguarding Kenya Lake System's Unique Ecological Gem,” in Nairobi on 20 January 2025. The meeting had representatives from the Government of Kenya County Government of Baringo, County Government of ...

In an update to the joint UNESCO-WRI-IUCN report “World Heritage forests: carbon sinks under pressure”, new data reveals that fires have accounted for approximately 75% of tree cover loss in World Heritage sites. Steadily increasing tree cover loss due to fires, fueled by climate change, has led to record high emissions, and threatens the robust carbon sinks of forests in World Heritage ...

The Cultural and Competence Committee at Region Gävleborg, Sweden, has decided to award the 2025 World Heritage Scholarship to Polish playwright and poet Alejandro Radawski. His poetic project connects the World Heritage Site Decorated Farmhouses of Hälsingland with the Historic Centre of Krakow – and was selected from among 993 applications from 100 countries. “It’s fantastic that the ...

In a landmark move to safeguard its cultural and natural heritage, Nauru held its first national consultation meeting on the World Heritage Convention with the support of UNESCO. A dynamic interactive session on 23 May 2025 brought together national stakeholders and international experts to discuss the implementation of the World Heritage Convention in Nauru. This milestone meeting ...

On the occasion of the 30th Anniversary of the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA), the UNESCO World Heritage Centre joins the international community in celebrating this milestone in global environmental cooperation. For three decades, AEWA has united efforts to protect migratory waterbirds and their habitats across continents, exemplifying the power ...

UNESCO and Plastic Odyssey have announced a new strategic partnership to address the escalating crisis of plastic pollution threatening marine World Heritage sites. The collaboration was unveiled during the third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3) in Nice, with the support of the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs. Covering more than 2 million km²—an area comparable to the ...

Nice, France – Thursday, 13 June 2025 – As global leaders gather in Nice for the third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3), UNESCO is proud to unveil a bold new initiative to strengthen the resilience of marine protected areas (MPAs) in the face of accelerating climate change. MPAs are the cornerstone of ocean conservation, protecting biodiversity, supporting coastal and indigenous ...

UNESCO expresses its grave concern over the increasing threats affecting the World Heritage site ‘Kyiv: Saint-Sophia Cathedral and Related Monastic Buildings, Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra’, following the attack on 10 June 2025 by the Russian Federation. This damage occurred amidst a surge of attacks on numerous Ukrainian cities, resulting in civilian casualties and damage to cultural and educational ...

The UNESCO World Heritage Centre is pleased to announce the selected projects of the World Heritage Volunteers (WHV) 2025 Campaign, under the theme of  ‘World Heritage Volunteers 2025 - Working on the Future’. 89 action camp projects will be implemented from April to December 2025 at 82 World Heritage properties and sites on the Tentative Lists, by 70 organizations in 41 countries around the ...