[Uniquement en Anglais]

UNESCO/Netherlands Fund-in-Trust for World Heritage

The UNESCO/Netherlands Funds-in-Trust (NFiT) co-operation to support the World Heritage Convention was established in 2001 by the State Secretary for Education, Culture and Sciences Dr. Rick van der Ploeg, currently Representative for the Netherlands in the World Heritage Committee. Under this Funds-in-Trust arrangement the Government of the Netherlands made available an amount of €1.8 million (€450,000 annually over a period of four years from 2001-2004) to reinforce the implementation of the World Heritage Convention. On 23 November 2004, Secretary of State Ms. Medy van der Laan extended the NFiT Co-operation Agreement for the period 2005-2008.

The aim of the contribution was to promote the implementation of the 1972 “Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage” through activities within four main areas:

• Implementation of the Global Strategy;
• Education/World Heritage in Young Hands;
• Technical Co-operation;
• Periodic Reporting on World Heritage sites.

Furthermore, under the NFiT special attention will be reserved for the category of mutual heritage or common cultural heritage: the heritage that is perceived by the Netherlands and other countries or regions concerned as common cultural heritage. This heritage extends beyond the remnants in former colonies and could include cultural properties originating from other international ventures by the Netherlands as well.

Under this Funds-in-Trust arrangement, no restrictions are applied to allocating funds to particular regions of the world or to the nationality of consultants to be used for missions or implementation of projects. As a result of this relative freedom, over the past four years a fairly equal distribution of projects and sites that were selected for sponsoring has taken place over the regions of Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, Asia-Pacific and Eastern Europe.

For more information, contact Ron van Oers, NFit Coordinator at the World Heritage Centre.