News

Christmas Eve 1968 might seem like a strange date to mark as a pivotal point in our understanding of Earth. Yet it was on that date that William Anders of Apollo 8 took the first color photo of earth from afar rising above the grey surface of the moon. Now nearly five decades later we have realized we live on an ocean world and yet protection of the open ocean – the high seas - has still ...

UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre welcomes the U.K. government's decision to reject the planning permission for the Navitus Bay Wind Park proposal offshore from the World Heritage property Dorset and East Devon Coast, often referred to as Jurassic Coast. This decision followed a detailed application review process which took into consideration the importance of the World Heritage site inscribed ...

Call for Applications for Cultural Mediterranean Projects. The Marc de Montalembert grant - 7000 euros - helps young people from countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea and below 28 years of age to undertake a project corresponding to a personal vocation and dedicated to the cultures or arts and crafts of the Mediterranean. Since 1994 Twenty five projects have been implemented by winners ...

The Albanian government has joined the EU in supporting UNESCO’s project aimed at the sustainable development of the Lake Ohrid region, a transboundary region in Albania and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Two-thirds of Lake Ohrid is inscribed as a World Heritage site on the Macedonian side of the lake. The protection of this site would be further reinforced by extending World ...

On September 27, six weeks after it began exploratory drilling off the Northwest Coast of Alaska, Royal Dutch Shell announced that it is abandoning its quest for Arctic oil. Shell’s decision to cease operations in the Chukchi Sea is excellent news for the Natural System of Wrangel Island Reserve nearby. The Natural System of Wrangel Island Reserve is the only marine World Heritage site in ...

During the eighth Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation Awards prize-giving ceremony, held in Monaco on 2 October 2015, H.S.H. Prince Albert II presented the Biodiversity Award to Emmanuel de Merode for his outstanding commitment to the preservation of the biodiversity of the Virunga National Park, one of five World Heritage sites of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Each year, the ...

The Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, strongly condemned the destruction of the Arch of Triumph in Palmyra, a civil monument two thousand years old and symbol of the city inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. "This new destruction shows how extremists are terrified by history and culture – because understanding the past undermines and delegitimizes their claims – and embodies an ...

From 13 to 16 October 2015, Turin will host the 3rd World Forum on Local Economic Development and launch the EXTO-EXPO 2015 programme. Within this framework, the Centro Studi Silvia Santagata-Ebla (CSS-Ebla, Turin, Italy), is organising, with the support of the UNESCO Regional Bureau for Science and Culture in Europe, Venice (Italy), the pilot edition of a capacity-building workshop on the ...

In October 2015, a joint UNESCO/ICOMOS/RAMSAR reactive monitoring mission will take place to the World Heritage site "Venice and its lagoon”(Italy), as requested by the World Heritage Committee to assess current conditions at the property. The World Heritage property of Venice and its lagoon was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1987. The UNESCO World Heritage Centre closely follows ...