2392 news
Thursday, 3 March 2022
Monitoring World Heritage site closures
In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, many governments have taken measures to restrict movements of people and access to certain areas.
This includes the closure of natural and cultural World Heritage sites in the 167 countries they are located in. Please consider the following when reviewing the statistics:
The World Heritage Convention has been ...
2 min read
Tuesday, 1 March 2022
The 2021 UNESCO Marine World Heritage Annual Overview, made public today, summarises a year of conservation successes for marine World Heritage, but also underscores the urgent need for greater action to protect sites from the rapidly increasing threat of climate change.
Consistent with its mandate, the work of the UNESCO World Heritage Marine Programme concentrates on building resilience ...
2 min read
Wednesday, 23 February 2022
On 23 February 2022, an online Kick-Off Expert Meeting launched the UNESCO/Japan Funds-in-Trust (JFiT) project “Support Silk Roads World Heritage Nomination(s) process” (Phase III). This event was co-organised by the UNESCO World Heritage Centre and the International Institute for Central Asian Studies (IICAS), and brought together representatives of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, IICAS ...
2 min read
Tuesday, 22 February 2022
The UNESCO World Heritage Centre and ICCROM launch a Call for Expressions of Interest for the Evaluation of the UNESCO World Heritage Capacity-Building Strategy (WHCBS)
For the 10th Anniversary of the adoption of the World Heritage Capacity-Building Strategy (2011-2021), the World Heritage Committee, at its extended 44th session (Fuzhou/online, 2021), requested an evaluation of the WHCBS. In ...
1 min read
Monday, 21 February 2022
UNESCO expresses its deep regret at the passing of Abdoul Aziz Guissé, Director of Cultural Heritage of Senegal, in Dakar on 3 February 2022.
"I would like to pay tribute to the memory of Abdoul Aziz Guissé and to the immense contribution he made to the safeguarding of african heritage," said Ernesto Ottone R., UNESCO's Assistant Director-General for Culture. "His unwavering dedication ...
1 min read
Friday, 18 February 2022
Resilience and Re-mobilization towards World Heritage.
The UNESCO World Heritage Centre is pleased to announce the Call for Projects for the World Heritage Volunteers (WHV) Campaign 2022 ‘Resilience and Re-mobilization towards World Heritage’.
In the wake of the pandemic which has highlighted the importance of carrying out community development hand-in-hand with World Heritage conservation, ...
2 min read
Tuesday, 15 February 2022
In response to recent large-scale outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in wild birds, the Secretariat of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) convened the Scientific Task Force on Avian Influenza and Wild Birds. Via a press release on 25 January 2022, the Task Force ...
1 min read
Monday, 14 February 2022
UNESCO expresses its full support to the families of the victims of two deadly attacks carried out on Tuesday 8 and Thursday 10 February 2022 against security guards on patrol in the W National Park in Benin, one of the components of the W-Arly-Pendjari Complex (Benin, Burkina Faso and Niger) inscribed on the World Heritage List.
"These deadly attacks that occurred at a World Heritage site, ...
1 min read
Friday, 11 February 2022
On 31 January 2022, African experts met to gather insights on best practices for implementing the 1972 Convention in Africa.
In the framework of Global Priority Africa, this initiative aims to propose a long-term vision for implementing the 1972 Convention while focusing on challenges and opportunities identified within the framework of the United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable ...
2 min read
Tuesday, 1 February 2022
Today is World Wetlands Day with the theme: Wetlands Action for People and Nature, highlighting the importance of action which ensures that wetlands are conserved and sustainably used.
The World Heritage Convention works continuously with multiple entities with this aim of protecting the most important wetland systems in the world sustainably for future generations. Wetlands are currently ...
3 min read
Monday, 31 January 2022
Legacy Landscapes Fund (LLF) has announced its first open call for proposals.
The open call is from 31 January 2022 - 30 April 2022.For detailed information, please make sure to carefully read all documents accessible below.
Process of LLF Call for Proposals 2022
What LLF funds and How to Apply
Download the Call announcement here: ...
1 min read
Friday, 21 January 2022
With the support of UNESCO, UNDP, the Government of Botswana and local partners, projects to support conservation and sustainable livelihoods of communities have started in the Okavango Delta World Heritage site. The activities, which are planned and led by local civil society organisations, are supported through the Community Management for Protected Areas for Conservation (COMPACT) ...
2 min read
Wednesday, 12 January 2022
The World Heritage Scholarship of 2021, a residency programme of one month at the World Heritage property ‘Decorated Farmhouses of Hälsingland’ (Sweden), was awarded to artist Imke Rust from Namibia/Germany. The call for applications was open for people from all over the world, including researchers, artists or other cultural actors and creators. Imke’s winning proposal explored the links ...
4 min read
Wednesday, 12 January 2022
The 4th call for applications for the World Heritage Residence Scholarship at the World Heritage site ‘Decorated Farmhouses of Hälsingland’ (Sweden), is now open until 1 February 2022.
The scholarship is aimed to be awarded to one selected person with an idea to relate the World Heritage site ’Decorated Farmhouses of Hälsingland’ to another World Heritage site in an artistic, cultural or a ...
2 min read
Wednesday, 5 January 2022
The UNESCO World Heritage Centre would like to express its grief at the loss of Richard Leakey, the renowned paleoanthropologist and conservationist whose contributions helped protect Kenyan heritage and furthered the study of human evolution.
Richard spent part of his childhood in Olduvai, in Ngorongoro Tanzania, and his parents Louis and Mary Leakey made important discoveries in fossils of ...
2 min read
Monday, 3 January 2022
On 6 December 2021, UNESCO and ICCROM launched the first edition of their joint training initiative “Improving Management Effectiveness in African World Heritage properties (2021-22)” targeting 25 African countries and 80 experts, of which 21 are women.
The first phase, starting this month, is composed of three online workshops with six sessions each, delivered in English, French and ...
2 min read
Monday, 3 January 2022
Strengthening synergies between culture and science in the fight against climate change was at the centre of the first ever meeting organised jointly by UNESCO, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) from 6 to 10 December 2021. This online 'International Co-sponsored Meeting on Culture, Heritage and Climate Change' ...
4 min read
Friday, 17 December 2021
Suva, Fiji (19 November 2021) – UNESCO, in partnership with IUCN Oceania, recently completed a draft background report to inform the Pacific Regional World Heritage Action Plan 2021-2025.
The report is based on consultation at national and regional levels, and the findings present the dynamic heritage profile of the Pacific region, including challenges, strengths and opportunities, and ...
4 min read
Thursday, 16 December 2021
On 10 December 2021, the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, in collaboration with the China-based environmental think-thank Greenovation:Hub (G:Hub) and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) China, organized an online workshop to promote the integration of the “No-Go commitment” for World Heritage into the environmental policies of Chinese banks and financial institutions.
The workshop was a follow-up ...
2 min read
Thursday, 16 December 2021
As part of an ongoing UNESCO Heritage Emergency Fund (HEF) project for “Post-fire emergency assistance for the World Heritage property of the Tombs of Buganda Kings at Kasubi, Uganda,” an online peer exchange was organized on 15 December 2021 by the UNESCO Regional Office for Eastern Africa between the site management authorities of the Kasubi Tombs World Heritage site in Uganda and the ...
5 min read
Tuesday, 14 December 2021
As part of the project “Technical and financial assistance for the reconstruction of Muzibu-Azaala-Mpanga, architectural masterpiece of the Tombs of Buganda Kings at Kasubi, Uganda, World Heritage property in Danger” funded by the Japan Funds in Trust to UNESCO, an Introduction Guide to the Preservation of Traditional Thatching of the Buganda Community of Uganda was produced to document and ...
3 min read
Friday, 10 December 2021
An online technical workshop was organized to strengthen capacities in the Arab States in applying Impact Assessments to both natural and cultural World Heritage properties, providing important tools to evaluate the risks and threats that new projects may pose to the Outstanding Universal Value of sites, and to elaborate mitigation measures.
The online workshop, which took place on 6 and 9 ...
1 min read
Friday, 10 December 2021
The theme of this year's International Mountain Day is sustainable mountain tourism.
Mountains form part of our common natural UNESCO World Heritage. While the World Heritage Convention protects these irreplaceable mountain areas, the COVID-19 pandemic badly affected the sector of tourism, which created a crisis of economic and livelihoods for mountain communities. The United Nations is ...
1 min read
Thursday, 9 December 2021
UNESCO is committed to strengthening the management of African World Heritage sites by building the capacity of African World Heritage site managers – as embodied by its newly-launched Flagship Programme on “Fostering Cultural Heritage and Capacity Development” in Africa.
In line with this Flagship Programme, the Interim Committee of the African Site Managers Network met in Abomey (Benin) ...
1 min read
Wednesday, 8 December 2021
Gabon ratified the Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage in December 1986. To date, it has two properties inscribed on the World Heritage List, the Ecosystem and Relict Cultural Landscape Lopé - Okanda and the Ivindo National Park, inscribed in 2021 at the 44th enlarged session of the World Heritage Committee (Fuzhou, China). The country's tentative list ...
2 min read
Wednesday, 8 December 2021
A “Sub‐regional Capacity Building workshop on Sustainable Tourism for the Caribbean” took place online on 23 and 30 November 2021, organized by The World Heritage Centre and the UNESCO Office in Kingston and Havana in cooperation with the University of the West Indies and Barbados National Commission for UNESCO.
The main aim of the workshop was to strengthen the capacities of the World ...
1 min read
Tuesday, 7 December 2021
Join us and contribute to a knowledge-building initiative connecting climate change to the diversity of human cultures and heritage.
To read the call, please go to the ICCROM website: bit.ly/3obL2JH
To access the web form click here
Proposal deadline: 22 December 2021
Climate.Culture.Peace aims to share and exchange knowledge, research, practices and capacities through a multi-day ...
1 min read
Monday, 6 December 2021
UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay has appointed Lazare Eloundou Assomo Director of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre.
Originally from Cameroon, Mr Eloundou Assomo is a graduate in architecture (Grenoble School of Architecture, France) and in urban planning (DEA Grenoble 1). He began his career as an associate researcher at the Centre for Earthen Construction of the Grenoble School of ...
2 min read
Thursday, 2 December 2021
The UNESCO World Heritage Centre, in collaboration with the UNESCO Field Offices in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), organised a regional online workshop on 2 December 2021, during which national Focal Points from the region participated to talk about the Third Cycle of Periodic Reporting.
Around 50 participants from 33 countries of the LAC region were trained in the technical aspects ...
1 min read
Thursday, 2 December 2021
UNESCO has been informed of a press release issued by the Office of the President of Kiribati on 15 November last, concerning the Government of Kiribati’s decision to lift the closure of the Phoenix Islands Protected Area as a no-take zone and to introduce a Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) for the sustainable use of marine resources within the World Heritage property. A no-take zone is a marine ...
1 min read
Tuesday, 30 November 2021
Within the framework of the 23rd session of the General Assembly of States Parties to the 1972 Convention, the publication Qhapaq Ñan, Andean Road System: New steps towards its sustainable conservation will be launched at a special side-event which will take place on 25th November at 13h45 in Room II with the presence of the Director of the World Heritage Centre a.i. and the representatives ...
1 min read
Monday, 29 November 2021
On the 3rd and 4th of November, the Somali Academy of Science and Arts (SOMASA), in close collaboration with UNESCO, organised a two-day National Consultation workshop and awareness-raising event on the implementation of the 1972 World Heritage Convention in Mogadishu, Somalia, as part of the three-year project entitled” Supporting Capacity Building for Nomination projects and promotion of ...
1 min read
Thursday, 25 November 2021
The 23rd General Assembly of the States Parties to the World Heritage Convention is meeting from 24 to 26 November 2021 at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France, convening the 193 States Parties to the World Heritage Convention, under the chairmanship of H.E. Mr Tebogo Seokolo, Ambassador Extraordinary and Permanent Delegate of South Africa to UNESCO.
During the session, the General Assembly ...
1 min read
Thursday, 25 November 2021
On 22 November 2021, in a ceremony at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, and Lina Mendoni, Minister of Culture and Sports of the Hellenic Republic, awarded the UNESCO-Greece Melina Mercouri International Prize for the Safeguarding and Management of Cultural Landscapes to Mojca Kunst, Director of the Kozjansko Park Public Institute, for the management of ...
2 min read
Monday, 22 November 2021
The Brazilian Cerrado is the largest savannah region in South America, and is home to the Cerrado Biosphere Reserve which encompasses the Cerrado Protected Areas: Chapada dos Veadeiros and Emas National Parks World Heritage site. The Cerrado biome is also the most biodiverse savannah in the world, home to approximately 5% of the planet’s biodiversity.
The region supports many rare and ...
2 min read
Wednesday, 17 November 2021
A new report, Ocean Science Roadmap for UNESCO Marine World Heritage, reveals that three quarters of marine World Heritage sites are unprepared for the impacts of climate change, because of a lack of scientific knowledge. The roadmap identifies critical science gaps that impede the sustainable protection of marine World Heritage sites in an uncertain future and calls for vastly increased ...
3 min read
Tuesday, 16 November 2021
The 16th of November marks the anniversary of the World Heritage Convention. The Convention has preserved UNESCO World Heritage, natural and cultural for 49 years.
This common heritage belonging to us all is the best of our world, and the best of who we are. However the recent United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) made it clear that if we do not adequately protect World Heritage ...
4 min read
Friday, 12 November 2021
The COP26 United Nations Climate Change Conference has served as a venue to announce pivotal pledges that will support increased protection of natural World Heritage. Forests, coastal and marine ecosystems found in UNESCO natural World Heritage sites are some of the most biodiversity-rich habitats on Earth and play a crucial role in climate regulation by absorbing and storing carbon.
World ...
3 min read
Wednesday, 10 November 2021
10 November 2021 marks ten years of the 2011 UNESCO Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape.
On 10 November 2011 UNESCO’s General Conference adopted the new Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape by acclamation, the first such instrument on the historic environment issued by UNESCO in 35 years.
The Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL Recommendation), calls on ...
3 min read
Wednesday, 10 November 2021
Within the framework of International Assistance from the World Heritage Fund, UNESCO Office in Bangkok and the Heritage Department of Lao PDR are organizing from 10 to 12 November 2021, with the participation of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, an online workshop on ‘Impact Assessment for Sustainable Heritage Management’ for the Mekong cluster countries: Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Viet ...
1 min read
Friday, 5 November 2021
From June to October 2021, over Gambian 300 secondary school students have attended at least one discovery and training session at one of the two Stone Circles of Senegambia World Heritage sites in the country (two more are located in Senegal). Wassu and Kerbatch sites have been visited under the guidance of trained tour guides and teachers as well as staff from the National Centre for Arts ...
3 min read
Friday, 5 November 2021
The World Heritage represents the most exceptional expressions of our humanity and treasures of our planet. Through the 1972 Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, countries around the world vow to safeguard the places of outstanding universal value through local, national, regional and international actions.
In 2022, the World Heritage Convention ...
5 min read
Thursday, 4 November 2021
The course on “People-Centred Approaches to the Conservation of Nature and Culture” is a flagship capacity building activity of the World Heritage Leadership Programme
This course is dedicated to World Heritage site managers/coordinators and heritage practitioners working in the Latin America and Caribbean region. The course will be held online in February 2022 and will be delivered in ...
Tuesday, 2 November 2021
The World Heritage Centre wishes to pay tribute to Dr. Joseph Eboreime, a leading personality of world cultural heritage in Africa who passed away on Wednesday 27 October.
Dr. Joseph Eboreime was the pioneer Director of Monuments, Heritage and Sites of the National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM) of Nigeria.
He was a respected heritage professional who garnered recognition both ...
1 min read
Friday, 29 October 2021
Funded by the Flanders-UNESCO Trustfund (FUT), UNESCO starts the development of an online geographic information system for World Heritage
Over a thousand properties are currently inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, almost half of which are located in Europe and North America. To preserve the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of World Heritage sites, potential impacts need to be ...
1 min read
Thursday, 28 October 2021
World Heritage forests: Carbon sinks under pressure, a report by UNESCO, World Resources Institute (WRI) and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) released today, provides the first global scientific assessment of greenhouse gas emissions and sequestration by forests in UNESCO World Heritage sites.
It reveals that despite substantial carbon stored and absorbed by forests ...
6 min read
Wednesday, 27 October 2021
From September to October 2021, five sub-regional meetings were organized with African site managers from Eastern, Central, Southern, Western and Northern Africa to elect the members of the Interim Committee of the African Site Managers Network. 15 members were elected (3 members per sub-region) to work as the Interim Committee to ensure the official establishment of the African Site Managers ...
2 min read
Friday, 22 October 2021
On 15 October 2021, the UNESCO/China Youth Development Foundation Mercedes-Benz Star Fund “Conservation and Management of World Heritage Sites in China” meeting took place in Songtao Miao Autonomous County, Guizhou Province, China. It reviewed the achievements of Phase III of the project and launched a new Phase IV.
Shahbaz Khan, Director of the UNESCO Office in Beijing, expressed his ...
2 min read
Tuesday, 19 October 2021
UNESCO is launching a call for UNESCO designated sites including Biosphere Reserves, UNESCO Global Geoparks and World Heritage sites, as well as elements of the Intangible Cultural Heritage to benefit from the capacity building support of the UNESCO Earth Network.
Earlier this month, a call for volunteer experts including young people was launched.
The programme aims at matching volunteer ...
1 min read
Tuesday, 19 October 2021
An ambitious project using cutting edge environmental DNA, known as eDNA, to understand the richness of biodiversity of UNESCO’s marine World Heritage sites launches today.
It will involve the collection by scientists and local residents of genetic material from waste, mucus or the cells of fish from across select marine World Heritage sites, with the aim of monitoring fish, including ...
2 min read
Friday, 15 October 2021
Part 1 of the fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP 15) gathered countries to negotiate towards the adoption of a new and transformative global deal to halt biodiversity loss by 2030 (post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework) due in 2022. The hybrid meeting held from 11 to 15 October 2021 was hosted by China from the city of ...
2 min read
New edition of Asante Traditional Buildings publication aims to promote sustainable heritage tourism
Wednesday, 13 October 2021
As part of the Sankofa Project, sponsored by the French Embassy in Kumasi, Ghana - the revision and 2021 edition of Asante Traditional Buildings has been published.
The revised publication aims to regenerate interest in the traditional architecture found at the Asante Traditional Buildings (Ghana) UNESCO World Heritage site and motivate students and researchers towards sustainable ...
2 min read
Friday, 8 October 2021
UNESCO World Heritage Centre met on Wednesday 6 October 2021 with His Excellency Mr Carlos-Edmilson Marques Vieira, following his nomination in July 2021 as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Guinea-Bissau to France, UNESCO and the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF). This meeting provided an opportunity to update the Ambassador on current UNESCO’s initiatives ...
1 min read
