News

The UNESCO World Heritage Centre would like to express its condolences for the lives lost in northern Italy last week in the floods and mudslides resulting from torrential rains. Villages as well as road and railway communication lines of the Cinque Terre World Heritage site have been severely affected by the rains, and the Centre is working with the national and local authorities to ...

UNESCO has invited experts from both inside and outside of Libya to urgently examine the preservation of cultural heritage in the country, notably measures to safeguard cultural sites; prevent illicit trafficking, protect museums and strengthen cultural institutions in the wake of civil strife and the overthrow of the Gaddafi regime. The meeting - the first on protecting Libyan cultural ...

The UNESCO World Heritage Centre participated in a round table on “Attractiveness of regional assets: The creation and regionalization of added value” at the world’s first international forum of Purple Economy held in Paris, France, 11-13 October 2011 together with Carlo Petrini (Founder and President of Slow Food) and Daniel Maximin (Commissioner of the French Year on ...

Severe flooding in Thailand since mid July has this week inundated the World Heritage property of the Historic City of Ayutthaya, founded in ca. 1350 as the second capital of the Kingdom of Siam after Sukhothai. Located on an island on the Chao Praya river, the protective embankments could no longer withstand the increasing height of the floods. UNESCO Bangkok Office and the World Heritage ...

Fauna and Flora International (FFI) a longtime partner of UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre, launched a global appeal this week with the objective of helping protect over 50,000 hectares of the globally unique “fynbos” ecosystem in the Cape Floral region of South Africa.The targeted lands are in the World Heritage site’s buffer areas, contributing to the long term ...

Whale Sanctuary of El Vizcaino and Islands and Protected Areas of the Gulf of California(both located in Baja California, Mexico). The Whale Sanctuary of El Vizcaino site has been inscribed on the World Heritage List since 1993. It is the only calving and nursery area for the Eastern Pacific gray whale population, which traditionally travels there each season from the Bering and Chukchi seas ...

Born after 31 December 1975 you will be under 30 years of age in 2012. You are a native of a Mediterranean country. You wish to develop a project furthering the knowledge and understanding of Mediterranean cultures. Every year the Marc de Montalembert Foundation offers a grant of 7000 euro to enable the implementation of such projects. To apply for the 2005 Marc de Montalembert grant ...

The Northern Luzon of the Philippines was severely affected by Typhoon Pedrin (International Name: Nesat) which crossed the region on Tuesday 27 September. Its trajectory passed across the Ifugao Province and has, according to preliminary reports, caused major mud and landslides within the area of the World Heritage property of the Rice Terraces in the Philippine Cordilleras. A second typhoon ...