Some fifty potential Silk Roads Heritage Corridors have been identified, with twenty corridors being  considered as a medium priority, while three corridors within the five Central Asian countries and China are recommended as a top priority for the first phase of the serial and trans-boundary World Heritage Nomination of the Silk Roads at the 2nd meeting of the Coordinating Committee of ...

UNESCO and HarperCollins Publishers are pleased to announce the release of the world's first fully comprehensive World Heritage sites application (app) for iPhone and iPad. This UNESCO-authorised app provides a guide to all 911 UNESCO World Heritage sites, incorporating the 21 newly-inscribed sites announced in July 2010, including the Rainforests of Atsinanana in Madagascar and ...

The theme for World Migratory Bird Day 2011, celebrated around the world on 14-15 May, is ' Land use changes from a bird's-eye view ' and it highlights the negative effects human activities are having on migratory birds, their habitats and the planet's natural environment. World Migratory Bird Day is being organized by the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) and the African-Eurasian ...

The UNESCO World Heritage Centre and IUCN are deeply saddened by the loss of one of nature conservation’s leading lights. Dr Kenton R. Miller, a former IUCN Director General and globally-recognized leader in protected area management, has passed away. Kenton Miller served as IUCN Director General from 1983 to 1988 and recently finished a third term as Chair of IUCN’s ...

The UNESCO - FFI - UNF Rapid Response Facility awarded an emergency grant to the Wildlife Conservation Society of Tanzania this week in response to its request for assistance in dealing with a sudden rise in the killing of elephants linked to an increase in Human / Elephant Conflicts on the border of Udzungwa Mountains National Park.   The park is part of the Eastern Arc Mountains ...

Remarkable natural and cultural properties from 40 countries will be considered for inscription on UNESCO’s World Heritage List during the meeting of the World Heritage Committee in Paris (19 – 29 June). Six of these countries stand to have properties inscribed on the World Heritage List for the first time during the forthcoming session: Barbados, Jamaica, Micronesia, Palau, ...

From 18-22 April 2011, the Swiss watch manufacturer Jaeger-LeCoultre organized its third online auction for the benefit of World Heritage marine sites. This year, the manufacture auctioned a limited series watch in tribute to the legend of divers' watches: the Prototype N°1 of the Memovox Tribute to Deep Sea, "LeCoultre Spécial Amérique 1959" commemorative ...

World Heritage Memory Net (WHMNet) is a model global digital library of cultural, historical, and moveable heritage collections related to the current 911 World Heritage Sites of 151 countries inscribed by the World Heritage Committee.  WHMNet is a fast, efficient, cutting-edge, online knowledge base which provides universal access to multilingual, multimedia and multiformat resources on ...

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has released the results of its rhinoceros census in Nepal, reporting a reported 23% increase in rhino numbers in this World Heritage site since the last census taken in 2008.  Numbers increased from 408 to 503. WWF reports that these numbers reflect the success of conservation efforts for this species and are a result of improved rhino ...

Following their meeting in UNESCO Headquarters, Paris 3-4 March 2011, a group of Afghan and international experts working on the safeguarding of Bamiyan (Afghanistan), as well as representatives of the Afghan and Japanese governments and UNESCO, released a list of recommendations for further activities to preserve the Bamiyan site.  Bamiyan remains one of the most important examples of ...

This conference was held in Rome December 3-5, 2008. The conclusions outlined below were reached thanks to contributions from ICCROM, UNESCO-WHC, UN-WTO, HERITY INTERNATIONAL Conclusions by the First HERITY Conference (December 5-9, 2006) highlighted that "from the point of view of culture, no poor Countries exist around the World: every territory has a significant and priceless Heritage ...

UNESCO invites Member States, Intergovernemental Organizations, NGOs, the Private Sector and Civil Society to a Conference designed to demonstrate the importance of culture as a motor for reconstruction in Haiti. The main objective of this conference is to inform the international community about the role of Culture in the Reconstruction of Haiti, the projects undertaken, the needs and ...

The call for applications for the IV° edition of the Master in "World Heritage at Work", offered by the University of Turin, the Polytechnic of Turin and the International Training Centre of ILO, in collaboration with the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, is now open. The programme is intended for professionals involved in the management of World Heritage properties and/or ...

The devastating March 11th earthquake that struck the coast of Japan created a powerful tsunami that ravaged the  coastline and brought tragedy to thousands of people. No World Heritage sites were affected in Japan and the tsunami spread rapidly across the Pacific during the course of the day. Properly warned, the people of Galápagos (13,000 km from Japan) ...

The latest version of the World Heritage Map, produced by the UNESCO World Heritage Centre and National Geographic Maps with support from Ministry of Culture of the  Kingdom of Bahrain and the United Nations Foundation, can now be ordered for a modest fee from the World Heritage Centre website to recover mailing costs. The Map is an extremely valuable learning and awareness-raising tool ...

Since the Kingdom of Bahrain became for the first time a member of the prestigious World Heritage Committee in 2007, one of the objectives has been to welcome the distinguished delegates of the States Parties to the Convention in our country. For the last four years, all the Bahraini authorities have been working on the preparation of this exceptional event and ...

Kishore Rao has been appointed Director of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre. An expert in forestry and natural resources policy and planning, Mr Rao has been Deputy Director of the World Heritage Centre since 2005, and has, in addition to overall management and programme coordination responsibilities, led the Centre's work on natural heritage protection. Mr Rao has Master's Degrees in ...

The Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, today called on both Libya and the coalition of States implementing a no-fly zone over the country to respect the Hague Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict (1954) and its two (1954 and 1999) Protocols, as appropriate, and keep military operations away from cultural sites. Of the ten states that make up ...

In view of the forthcoming 11th World Congress of the Organization of World Heritage Cities in Sintra (Portugal), 22 to 25 November 2011, the OWHC has launched a Call for Posters on the congress theme World Heritage Cities and Climate Change. This Call addresses all those who are engaged in the conservation and management of a World Heritage City - public servants and administrators, ...

Following the kind invitation of the World Heritage Centre, I had the great pleasure to attend the meeting entitled "Follow-up to the Second Cycle of Periodic Reporting in the Arab States: Regional Meting for the Elaboration of the Regional Programme", held in Rabat (Kingdom of Morocco), from 7 to 9 March 2011. This meeting was a unique opportunity for me, as Chairperson of the World ...