2420 news
Tuesday, 20 December 2022
Inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1978, the Island of Gorée (Senegal) bears exceptional testimony to one of the greatest tragedies in the history of human societies: the slave trade. Today, however, the site faces major conservation challenges. UNESCO is working with the Senegalese authorities to meet these challenges.
The island of Gorée has been facing a worrying situation in recent ...
Friday, 16 December 2022
UNESCO has piloted an online training course on climate change adaptation and resilience in two natural World Heritage sites in Africa, with site managers from Mosi-oa-Tunya / Victoria Falls (Zimbabwe / Zambia) and Salonga National Park (Democratic Republic of Congo) joining. The outcome reveals the vulnerability of sites to climate change but offers options to reduce risks.
Climate change ...
Thursday, 15 December 2022
In 2018, the region of Gävleborg, Sweden, created the international World Heritage Residence Scholarship at the World Heritage site “Decorated Farmhouses of Hälsingland”. The 5th call for applications is now open until 15 February 2023.
One aim of UNESCO’s World Heritage Convention is to create links between people and promote international cooperation. Peace is a central concept. This ...
Thursday, 15 December 2022
In December 2022, young scientists from the French Polar Institute Paul-Émile Victor (Institut polaire Paul-Émile Victor; IPEV) and the French Southern and Antarctic Lands (Terres australes et antarctiques françaises; TAAF) participated in the UNESCO environmental DNA (eDNA) campaign on the Kerguelen Archipelago. This global campaign aims to improve knowledge and measure the effects of ...
Wednesday, 14 December 2022
After launching the Patrimonito Storyboard Competition this summer, the World Heritage Centre received over 700 submissions from young people featuring solutions to the impacts of climate change on World Heritage sites.
Climate change is the defining issue of our time and amongst the greatest threats facing cultural and natural heritage today. Involving the youth is essential to finding ...
Monday, 12 December 2022
While countries start their last sprint for this decade’s UN biodiversity targets (COP15), UNESCO and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs sign a new four-year (2022-2025) Programme Cooperation Agreement. Norway’s support of NOK 25 million to the World Heritage Fund makes a significant contribution to safeguarding of the unique biodiversity and rich cultural heritage of ...
Thursday, 8 December 2022
On the Occasion of the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15), UNESCO has issued new guidance for the corporate sector to ensure that their operations do not put World Heritage at risk.
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“This guidance is based on over two decades of collaboration with the corporate sector. During this time, companies have really stepped up their support to UNESCO World Heritage sites ...
Thursday, 8 December 2022
Artist Mikaela Steby Stenfalk won Gävleborg, Sweden's fourth World Heritage Scholarship and residence with her project "Dialogue between two interiors". Fifty-two applications from 20 countried were received. The World Heritage Scholarship is intended for professional cultural creators and people who work with, research or have another connection to World Heritage. The scholarship is linked ...
Tuesday, 6 December 2022
On 9 and 10 November 2022, local youth aged 6 to 12 years at Brazilian Atlantic Islands: Fernando de Noronha and Atol das Rocas Reserves World Heritage site joined the UNESCO environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling campaign as part of a global effort to better understand how climate change is affecting marine biodiversity.Amidst sea turtle and dolphin sightings, local children collected water ...
Tuesday, 6 December 2022
Early morning of 6 December 2022, Costa Rican Park rangers & volunteers sailed out to Cocos Island National Park to filter environmental DNA (eDNA) from the water. The local sampling is part of the global eDNA expeditions initiative that UNESCO currently conducts across 25 marine World Heritage sites to better understand ocean biodiversity and the effects of climate change ...
Wednesday, 30 November 2022
On 29 November 2022, the Kingdom of Morocco, represented by H.E. Mohammed Mehdi Bensaid, Minister of Youth, Culture and Communication, and Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, signed a framework agreement for the protection of African heritage, which will contribute to the implementation of activities for fostering cultural heritage safeguarding and capacity building, in the framework ...
Tuesday, 29 November 2022
In collaboration with UNESCO and supported by BMZ and GIZ, a ‘cash for work’ scheme has been launched by the Agency for Protected Areas in Georgia and the Development Fund of Protected Areas of Georgia (DFPA) in the Colchic Rainforests and Wetlands World Heritage property. 20 youth have been recruited as part of the project, and are receiving on the job training in visitor management and ...
Tuesday, 29 November 2022
After fifteen years of grassroots youth activities and international cooperation, and on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention, the World Heritage Volunteers (WHV) Initiative meet the challenge of ‘The Next 50’ years to involve young people, communities and site managers in building together new, inclusive societies where World Heritage is a source of ...
Monday, 28 November 2022
From 21 to 26 September 2022, nearly 100 youth from local schools collected environmental DNA (eDNA) samples across the Wadden Sea World Heritage area as part of a global UNESCO initiative to better understand how climate change is affecting marine biodiversity.
Ocean species shed DNA into the water around them in the form of genetic material from waste, mucus or cells. Just one liter of ...
Wednesday, 23 November 2022
“The Global Research and Action Agenda on Culture, Heritage, and Climate Change: Scientific Outcome of the International Co-Sponsored Meeting on Culture, Heritage, and Climate Change”, the result of collaboration between UNESCO and the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), co-sponsored by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), is now available online.
This ...
Wednesday, 23 November 2022
In order to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the UNESCO Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, known as the 1972 Convention, the UNESCO Cluster Office in San José collaborated with the National Museum of Costa Rica in the framework of a World Heritage Festival, which took place on Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 November at the headquarters ...
Tuesday, 15 November 2022
The Third Cycle of Periodic Reporting started in Europe and North America with a two-day online event (20-21 October) that brought together the national focal points for the implementation of the World Heritage Convention in the region.
In this year of the 50th anniversary of the World Heritage Convention that UNESCO has chosen to celebrate under the theme ‘World Heritage as a source of ...
Friday, 4 November 2022
UNESCO World Heritage sites demonstrate the impacts of climate change on cultural heritage and are important resources for traditional knowledge and practices and lead the way for heritage-based solutions and strategies. UNESCO is at the forefront of collecting data and evidence concerning climate change's impact on culture. Through the World Heritage Canopy platform, heritage-based solutions ...
Friday, 4 November 2022
This expert mission is part of the collaboration offered by the Director-General of UNESCO during her official visit to the World Heritage site "Historic District of the Port City of Valparaíso", which took place in May 2022.
The objective is to provide the Chilean Government and the Municipal Corporation for the Administration of the World Heritage Site with technical advice to help guide ...
Thursday, 3 November 2022
New UNESCO data highlight the accelerated melting of glaciers in World Heritage sites, with glaciers in a third of sites set to disappear by 2050. But it is still possible to save the other two thirds, if the rise in global temperatures does not exceed 1.5°C compared to the pre-industrial period. This will be a major challenge for COP27.
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Tuesday, 1 November 2022
From 19 to 25 October 2022, the Monaco Explorations mission conducted a series of scientific operations around Aldabra Atoll (Seychelles) with the aim of better understanding and protecting the coral reefs of this UNESCO World Marine Heritage site and promoting youth involvement. On this occasion, H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco visited Aldabra Atoll on 24 and 25 October. The site was one ...
Monday, 31 October 2022
The 2011 Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL Recommendation) is a perfect herald for the theme of the 2022 World Cities Day, “Act local to go global”. The HUL Recommendation provides a global approach based on shared principles and tools that supports historic cities in developing sustainable urban models adapted to local conditions.
In line with this vision, the World ...
Wednesday, 26 October 2022
Gathered in Yaoundé (Cameroon) at the invitation of the Government of Cameroon, the ministers and experts in charge of World Heritage from eight countries in Central Africa (Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon and Sao Tomé and Principe) called on UNESCO and its partners, including the African World Heritage Fund, to support them in ...
Monday, 24 October 2022
Following the visit of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr Antonio Guterres to the World Heritage site of Moenjodaro on 8 September 2022, two experts designated by UNESCO jointly with the national authorities will start their emergency missions to Archaeological Ruins of Moenjodaro and to Historical Monuments at Makli, Thatta, two World Heritage properties in Pakistan which have ...
Friday, 21 October 2022
UNESCO and the Development Fund of Protected Areas (DFPA) of Georgia have signed an agreement to support sustainable tourism and heritage conservation activities in Colchic Rainforests and Wetlands (Georgia) World Heritage site.
The partnership between UNESCO and DFPA, worth around US$ 150 000, will support Georgia’s sustainable tourism recovery through enhancing visitor management and ...
Tuesday, 11 October 2022
President Zelensky made official the candidacy of the historic centre of Odesa for inscription on UNESCO’s World Heritage List in a speech to the Organization’s Executive Board on Tuesday afternoon. Receiving the application, Audrey Azoulay, the Organization’s Director-General, stressed that “this initiative marks confidence in UNESCO's protection mechanisms.”
President Zelensky made the ...
Thursday, 29 September 2022
On 29 and 30 September 2022, UNESCO organised the second online meeting for UNESCO’s Dive into Heritage project, with the support of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
UNESCO is currently developing the “Dive into Heritage” platform, an online tool to make World Heritage and its related intangible heritage more accessible to the general public through digital data. During its pilot phase the ...
Tuesday, 27 September 2022
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of 1972 World Heritage Convention, UNESCO is exhibiting a collection of images of World Heritage sites.
More than one hundred outstanding photographs are displayed around the UNESCO gates, offering a unique panorama of the diversity of the World Heritage sites. A selection of works by the photographer Yan Bighetti de Flogny, retracing his journey of ...
World Heritage City Lab: concluding the 10th Anniversary of the UNESCO HUL Recommendation in Córdoba
Friday, 23 September 2022
World Heritage City Lab: concluding the 10th Anniversary of the UNESCO HUL Recommendation in Córdoba
On 12, 13 and 14 September 2022, the World Heritage City Lab concluded the 10th Anniversary of the UNESCO Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL Recommendation) celebrations in Córdoba, Spain.
This concluding event was organised by the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, World ...
Wednesday, 21 September 2022
50 Years of UNESCO World Heritage in partnership with National Geographic
For 50 years now, UNESCO World Heritage has been a source of resilience, humanity and innovation. Through 30 splendid photographs, accompany us on a virtual world tour, focused on the future and youth.
Temporal Illusion, Pyramids of Giza, UNESCO World Heritage, Cairo, Egypt, 2018
Memphis and its ...
Europe and North America region starts the Third Cycle of Periodic Reporting exercise this September
Wednesday, 21 September 2022
As foreseen by the World Heritage Convention in its Article 29, Periodic Reporting is a global conservation monitoring mechanism that aims to give the key stakeholders of World Heritage properties, i.e. World Heritage site managers and focal points responsible for the implementation of the Convention at national level, an opportunity to reflect on the implementation of the World Heritage ...
Wednesday, 7 September 2022
From 19-20 July 2022, a two-day workshop on “Sustainable Tourism Strategy for World Heritage Properties in Suriname” was organized which brought together representatives of government institutions, World Heritage site managers, and representatives of local communities to identify current challenges and opportunities for the development of sustainable tourism at UNESCO-designated sites. The ...
Thursday, 1 September 2022
UNESCO expresses its deep regret at the passing of Ms. Corinne Forest, who passed away in France on Wednesday, August 24, 2022. Ms. Forest was the Head of the Technical Unit at the Aapravasi Ghat, Mauritius (World Heritage property, inscribed in 2006), a museologist by training and an ardent defender of World Heritage.
"Corinne Forest was a remarkable professional, with a sharp mind and ...
Wednesday, 24 August 2022
A training workshop was organized in Cairo, Egypt, to strengthen the capacities of heritage site managers and for those developing projects in and around heritage sites to train them in applying Impact Assessments in a World Heritage context. Impact assessments is an important tool to find the best possible solutions to meet both conservation priorities and development needs in the framework ...
Tuesday, 23 August 2022
In January 2005, Sierra Leone became a State party to the 1972 Convention and identified, in 2012, in its first Tentative List the sites that could potentially be proposed for inscription on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. This year, in January 2022, this Tentative List was updated to include Gola-Tiwai complex as the potential site for the country’s first nomination dossier.
Being among the ...
Tuesday, 23 August 2022
On the night of 22 to 23 August 1791, in Saint Domingue, today the Republic of Haiti, saw the beginning of the uprising that would play a crucial role in the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade.
It is against this background that the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition is commemorated on 23 August each year. It was first celebrated in a number of ...
Friday, 12 August 2022
The Historic Cairo was Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1979. Tucked away amid the modern urban area of Cairo lies one of the world's oldest Islamic cities, with its famous mosques, madrasas, hammams and fountains. It is also the place of origin for many expressions of craftsmanship, showing the synergies between the 1972 World Heritage Convention and the 2003 Convention for the ...
Thursday, 11 August 2022
On 13 July 2022, experts in coral bleaching preparedness and local management teams from UNESCO World Heritage coral reefs met online to share best practices to recognize bleaching alerts and rapidly deploy monitoring and evaluation measures during such events.
Coral reefs have been increasingly exposed to heat stress in recent years due to rising temperatures that result from climate ...
Tuesday, 9 August 2022
By resolution 49/214 of 23 December 1994, the United Nations General Assembly decided that the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples shall be observed on 9 August every year. The date marks the day of the first meeting, in 1982, of the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations of the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights. In 1990, the UN General ...
Tuesday, 2 August 2022
WHITRAP Secretariat General launches the 2nd edition of the Awards for World Heritage Education Innovative Cases on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the World Heritage Convention.
The objective is to build an international exchange platform focusing on innovative World Heritage Education case studies, and to provide action guidelines and references for practitioners of World Heritage ...
Friday, 29 July 2022
UNESCO and the Advisory Bodies to the World Heritage Committee have issued new guidance for assessing impacts from projects that could potentially affect the planet’s most precious heritage places. Designed specifically for heritage management institutions, governments and project developers, it aims to help find the best possible solutions to meet both conservation priorities and development ...
Friday, 29 July 2022
The UNESCO World Heritage Centre is pleased to launch the 2022 edition of the Patrimonito Storyboard Competition.
This competition aims to provide young people with an opportunity to use their creative and problem-solving skills to raise awareness about World Heritage sites. The World Heritage Education Programme is welcoming secondary school pupils and youth to create storyboards on the ...
Tuesday, 26 July 2022
From the intertwining roots to the tips of the branches, in a complex habitat, many species come to feed and reproduce, forming together one of the most flourishing ecosystems in existence. And we humans depend on these environments that slow down coastal erosion and are a source of food for many.
This is probably why the Colombian poet Tomas Gonzalez made it the symbol of his poetry ...
Tuesday, 19 July 2022
In June 2022, the Resilient Reefs Initiative was launched in Palau with the appointment of its first Chief Resilience Officer and Resilience Advisor. The Chief Resilience Officer will be tasked with bringing local communities, businesses, NGOs, and tourism operators together in an effort to build an inclusive resilience strategy for this globally outstanding World Heritage coral reef.
The ...
Monday, 18 July 2022
Dr Michael Jansen was a scholar and professor in conservation engineering, and the Managing Director of the German University of Technology | GUtech · Urban Planning and Architectural Design in Oman.
"We pay tribute to the memory of Michael Jansen and for the immense contribution he made to safeguarding heritage of many countries. He has been involved for decades as expert in heritage ...
Monday, 18 July 2022
With the support of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia a first online workshop on the future UNESCO’s Dive into Heritage platform entitled “Expert Workshop on the Dive into Heritage platform’s scientific content” was organised by UNESCO on the 12th and 13th of July 2022.
UNESCO is working on the creation of a new web tool “Dive into Heritage,” a comprehensive platform that will host digital data of ...
Friday, 15 July 2022
On 27 -28 June 2022, UNESCO's World Heritage Centre organized an experts meeting on Modern Heritage of Africa and the 1972 World Heritage Convention, with the aim to integrate the modern heritage concept into World Heritage in the African context and provide a new conceptual understanding from an African perspective. It builds upon the work already done in the Centre regarding Modern Heritage ...
Wednesday, 6 July 2022
With support from the UNESCO/Netherlands Funds-in-Trust, a hybrid-format Stakeholder Consultation Dialogue “Towards Developing Sustainable Livelihoods in the East Rennell World Heritage Site” was co-organised by the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development and UNESCO in Honiara on 31 May 2022.
Building on community meetings organised in East Rennell between 28 April and 1 May ...
Monday, 4 July 2022
On 4 July 2022, the Scientific Advisory Board of the environmental DNA initiative convened for the first time, sharing crucial recommendations as UNESCO prepares the global roll-out of the citizen science initiative.
The project “Environmental DNA Expeditions in UNESCO World Heritage Marine Sites” is guided by an international Scientific Advisory Board that brings together some of the ...
Wednesday, 29 June 2022
A series of online workshops were organized by the UNESCO World Heritage Centre (WHC) in collaboration with ICOMOS to support Iraq in its efforts towards the conservation of World Heritage properties, particularly those inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger.
Within the framework of the UNESCO/Netherlands Funds-in-Trust project for 'Strengthening capacities in state of ...
Wednesday, 29 June 2022
UNESCO Member States are invited to complete the survey to report on their implementation of the 2011 Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL Recommendation) based on an assessment of the situation for the period 2019-2022. In 2022, the survey contains two sections: Section A, concerning the implementation of the HUL Recommendation at national level, and Section B, concerning the ...
Tuesday, 28 June 2022
UNESCO is working in close collaboration with the Ministry of Technical Education and Vocational Training of Madagascar (METFP) for the creation of green jobs to tackle youth unemployment and strengthen the protection of Rainforests of the Atsinanana, UNESCO World Natural Heritage site.
Located in the south-east of Madagascar, Andohahela straddles Fort-Dauphin and Amboasary Sud in Anosy ...
Tuesday, 28 June 2022
On 28 June 2022, the UNESCO eDNA initiative was featured at the United Nations Oceans Conference in Lisbon (Portugal), during a side event which showcased ambitious science-based initiatives that inform policy.
Environmental DNA (eDNA) has the potential to revolutionize marine biodiversity assessments. This could save marine World Heritage site managers' precious time and resources, while at ...
Friday, 24 June 2022
According to a new count, 152 cultural sites in Ukraine have been partially or totally destroyed since the beginning of the war. UNESCO reiterates its call to respect international law, and continues its actions in support of cultural professionals in the field.
On Thursday, UNESCO published an updated assessment of the damage caused to cultural sites in Ukraine since 24 February 2022, when ...
Thursday, 23 June 2022
In the last 12 months, 145 cities, institutions and individuals have signed up to the HUL Call for Action to raise awareness about the 2011 UNESCO Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) and to accelerate inclusive urban and heritage management. Responses came from 59 countries from all regions of the world. They included stakeholders from academia, cultural institutions, the ...
Thursday, 23 June 2022
Equinor, one of the leading energy companies and an important player in the oil and gas sector and the Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC), a leading standard-setting organization for the jewellery and watch industry, have confirmed their commitments to safeguard World Heritage sites.
With an aim to preserve biodiversity and sensitive areas, and to reverse nature loss by 2030, Equinor ...
Thursday, 23 June 2022
Between February and March 2022, UNESCO supported the emergency clearing of the riverbeds of the Jam and Hari Rivers along the side of the Minaret of Jam World Heritage property in Afghanistan, to prevent the impact of seasonal flash floods.
The Minaret of Jam was the first Afghan site inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List, in 2002. Due to its fragility, it was immediately placed on the ...
Tuesday, 21 June 2022
In line with UNESCO’s Priority Africa, the UNESCO World Heritage Centre (WHC) is supporting 10 African countries without inscribed World Heritage properties (Burundi, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone, South Sudan) through the “Capacity-building programme for the nomination of World Heritage sites in the Africa Region,” ...
Tuesday, 14 June 2022
Under the presidency of Her Royal Highness Princess Lalla Hasnaa, the Foundation for the Safeguarding of the Cultural Heritage of Rabat has set up the programme "I discover my heritage" for the benefit of 3720 secondary school students from 62 secondary schools in Rabat in partnership with the Ministry of National Education, Preschool and Sports and the Ministry of Youth, Culture and ...
Wednesday, 8 June 2022
The project “Post COVID-19 World Heritage Site Management: Integration of Conservation, Tourism and Local Livelihood Strategies at World Heritage Sites”, funded by the government of Japan through the UNESCO/Japanese Funds-in-Trust, will be carried out from 2022 to 2024.
The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has led to national lockdowns and global travel restrictions and to the closure of ...
Saturday, 4 June 2022
As we celebrate 50 years of global environmental action for the anniversary of the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, a side-event commemorated the birth and achievements of four key biodiversity-related Conventions adopted in the 1970s: the Ramsar Convention, the World Heritage Convention, CITES and the Convention on Migratory Species.
Watch the event ...
Friday, 3 June 2022
A fire in Mount Kenya National Park/Natural Forest, burning for over two months, escalated to uncontrolled levels on the northern slopes in February. The Rapid Response Facility (RRF), a UNESCO World Heritage Centre and Fauna and Flora International joint initiative providing small grants in emergency situations affecting biodiversity within natural World Heritage sites mobilized US$40,000 to ...
Thursday, 2 June 2022
Resilience and Re-mobilization towards World Heritage
The UNESCO World Heritage Centre is pleased to announce the selected projects of the World Heritage Volunteers 2022 Campaign!
Under the theme Resilience and Re-mobilization towards World Heritage, 59 action camp projects will be implemented from June to December 2022 at 56 World Heritage properties and sites on the Tentative Lists, by 44 ...
Monday, 30 May 2022
In recent decades, Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger, has been a major target for poachers greedy for ivory and bushmeat. In response to these threats, UNESCO contributed to the management efforts undertaken in the Park by strengthening the ecological monitoring of key wild species (elephants and giraffes) and by ...
Wednesday, 25 May 2022
With support from the UNESCO/Netherlands Funds-in-Trust, community meetings were held in each of the four villages in the East Rennell World Heritage site on 28 April and 1 May 2022, to explore potential nature-based, sustainable livelihoods in East Rennell that would be compatible with the World Heritage values.
East Rennell is the first natural property inscribed on the World Heritage List ...
Tuesday, 24 May 2022
On 9 May 2022, UNESCO organized an online meeting to discuss the removal of African properties from the List of World Heritage in Danger.
Despite the richness and diversity of Africa’s cultural and natural heritage, the Sub-Saharan African region is one of the least represented regions on the World Heritage List, but still registers the highest number of endangered properties.
The meeting ...
Monday, 23 May 2022
The International Centre for the Interpretation and Presentation of World Heritage Sites as a Category 2 Centre under the auspices of UNESCO was officially established in the Republic of Korea, on 23 May 2022.
The Assistant Director-General for Culture, Mr Ernesto Ottone R., signed the final Agreement for this UNESCO Category 2 Centre, together with Mr Eung-chon CHOI, Administrator of the ...
Friday, 20 May 2022
UNESCO and Gabon's National Parks Agency (ANPN) sign an agreement to support eco-tourism and income-generating activities in Lopé National Park.
The partnership between UNESCO and ANPN, worth US$ 200,000 over a period of two years, will help to materialize a long-term vision to support the communities living in the Lopé National Park to establish a link between eco-tourism and ...
Friday, 20 May 2022
International Day for Biological Diversity 2022 is being celebrated under the theme: Building a shared future for all life.
This slogan is very fitting as the 1972 World Heritage Convention celebrates its 50th anniversary and we reflect on the next 50 years of the Convention and its shared future for all life.
It follows the 50th anniversary of UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Programme ...
Tuesday, 17 May 2022
African World Heritage Day is celebrated annually on the 5th of May to remember and acknowledge the importance of promoting and safeguarding the UNESCO World Heritage in Africa for the benefit of present and future generations. To celebrate the 7th edition of African World Heritage Day, the UNESCO World Heritage Centre (WHC), in collaboration with the African World Heritage Fund (AWHF), ...
Tuesday, 17 May 2022
Paris, 17 May 2022 – The Principality of Monaco and UNESCO signed today a new 3-year partnership to strengthen the scientific research of marine sites on the UNESCO World Heritage List and to pave the way for the use of carbon credit to help finance sites’ conservation efforts.
The new 3-year partnership will explore how carbon credit can help finance on-site conservation action at select ...
Monday, 9 May 2022
The UNESCO World Heritage Centre (WHC) learned with sadness the news of the accidental explosion that devastated the Saratoga Hotel, in Havana, on May 6, causing a significant number of losses and injuries, as well as considerable damage.
The WHC expresses its most sincere condolences to the families of the victims, to the injured and to all Cubans.
“To address this terrible accident, we ...
Monday, 9 May 2022
UNESCO expresses its deep regret at the passing of Amir Pašić.
Amir Pašić was an international scholar and professor of architecture, and the former Head of the Architectural Department of the Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture (IRCICA) in Istanbul, Turkey.
"I would like to pay tribute to the memory of Amir Pašić and the incredible contribution he made to restoration and ...
Thursday, 5 May 2022
Message from Ms Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, on the occasion of African World Heritage Day 5 May 2022.
Fifty years ago, the States Members of UNESCO met to adopt the World Heritage Convention, which to this day remains the cornerstone of international cultural cooperation.
In 1978, this essential instrument finally became operational when the first 12 sites were inscribed on ...
Friday, 29 April 2022
UNESCO creates an online Geographic Information System to better protect World Heritage properties
The World Heritage Online Map Platform is a new online Geographic Information System (GIS) for World Heritage, funded by the Government of Flanders (Belgium) through the Flanders UNESCO Trustfund (FUT). The Europe and North America region has been chosen as a pilot for the development of this ...
Monday, 25 April 2022
The report on the third regional workshop for Europe on “The Role of Visitor Centres in UNESCO Designated Sites,” held between 23 September and 2 October 2021, has been released. During online and in-presence activities, held in Ercolano, Italy, participants explored the role of visitor centres through a sustainable development lens and reflected on their potential as a catalyst for community ...
Friday, 22 April 2022
The “Interpretive Planning at World Heritage Properties in Europe” report published by UNESCO presents the concept, methodology, and outcomes of the first regional training course on enhancing interpretive planning at World Heritage properties in Europe, held in 2021. The initiative aims to highlight the potential of heritage interpretation in transversally supporting the objectives of World ...
Thursday, 21 April 2022
The call for applications to participate in the second regional course on interpretive planning at World Heritage properties (WH-Interp) is now open. You have until 18 May 2022, 12 pm CET to apply! The course organised by UNESCO in cooperation with Interpret Europe is mostly aimed at practitioners with a professional role in the management of World Heritage properties in Europe, especially ...
Monday, 18 April 2022
In 1982, UNESCO’s General Conference established 18 April as the International Day for Monuments and Sites. The Day is promoted by ICOMOS globally, and the theme for 2022 is ‘Heritage and Climate.’
Climate change is one of the defining issues of our time, and among the greatest threats facing cultural and natural UNESCO World Heritage monuments and sites. One in three natural sites and one ...
Thursday, 14 April 2022
All World Heritage-listed reefs are at risk of disappearing by the end of this century. On the occasion of the Our Ocean Conference in Palau, Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO Director-General, announces an emergency plan to give them the best chance of survival, with the support of the Global Fund for Coral Reefs. She also calls for an international mobilization to prevent coral reef ...
Thursday, 7 April 2022
In response to the call to empower African experts working for World Heritage, UNESCO in partnership with the African World Heritage Fund (AWHF), ICCROM, ICOMOS and IUCN launched the Mentorship Programme for African World Heritage Professionals on 16 February 2022 through an online event.
This Mentorship Programme is developed to better capacitate African World Heritage professionals through ...
Wednesday, 6 April 2022
UNESCO and ICCROM held an online ceremony to mark the launch of their joint initiative “Improving Management Effectiveness of World Heritage in Africa” with representatives from UNESCO World Heritage, ICCROM, IUCN, the Ambassadors of Japan, Norway, South Africa and Switzerland, and other participants. This event marks the end of the first set of activities (from 6 December 2021 to 24 January ...
Wednesday, 30 March 2022
From 27 to 30 March 2022, UNESCO undertook a pilot environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling campaign in the Gulf of Porto: Calanche of Piana, Gulf of Girolata, Scandola Reserve World Heritage site (France), to prepare the global roll-out of its citizen science eDNA initiative.
Youth aged 7 to 11 years old from the school in Ota-Porto nearby the World Heritage area collected eDNA samples and ...
Friday, 25 March 2022
On 8 and 10 February 2022, attacks involving improvised explosive devices resulted in the death of four rangers, two drivers, one instructor and one soldier, with 12 other individuals hospitalised with critical injuries 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.
The UNESCO Rapid ...
Friday, 25 March 2022
UNESCO, the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and the International Center for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) will undertake a joint Advisory mission to Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, a component of the World Heritage site "Paris, banks of the Seine", from 28 to 29 March 2022, in order to assess the works in progress following ...
Monday, 21 March 2022
Further to recent reports and inquiries, regarding the displacement of the Maasai people in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area World Heritage property, UNESCO wishes to recall that neither the World Heritage Committee – the intergovernmental body of 21 elected States governing the Convention – nor UNESCO Secretariat have at any time asked for the displacement of the Maasai people.
UNESCO ...
Friday, 18 March 2022
The Secretariats of the world’s eight major biodiversity-related Conventions, including the World Heritage Convention, call for an inclusive post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework to halt nature loss and deliver on the governments’ vision of living in harmony with nature by 2050. Failure to act would hamper the planet’s capacity to provide food, water and other benefits to people and make it ...
Thursday, 17 March 2022
UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre and IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) will undertake a mission to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef from 21 to 30 March 2022 to assess its state of conservation and a long-term sustainability plan for its protection. The mission is at the invitation of Australia and in response to the request made by the World Heritage Committee at its most ...
Tuesday, 15 March 2022
In the framework of the Third Cycle of the Periodic Reporting Exercise in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), which started in September 2021, the UNESCO World Heritage Centre has organized two workshops (one in English and one in Spanish) for World Heritage site managers in the region.
These meetings, held respectively on 8 March (English) and 10 March (Spanish) 2022 online on the Zoom ...
Thursday, 10 March 2022
UNESCO and the Government of Malawi have joined forces with an NGO Ripple Africa to support conservation of the exceptional fish biodiversity in Lake Malawi National Park World Heritage site. The project which was initiated thanks to Norway’s financial contribution to the World Heritage Fund focuses on supporting sustainable co-management of the fish resources as a key livelihood and heritage ...
Thursday, 10 March 2022
Today is World Wildlife Day with the theme, “Recovering key species for ecosystem restoration.”
The 1972 World Heritage Convention makes an important contribution to protect species by giving an international protection status to areas and ecosystems which harbor the most remarkable species. The transnational mangrove ecosystem of the Sundarbans (Bangladesh) and the Sundarbans National ...
Tuesday, 8 March 2022
Since the beginning of the crisis in Ukraine, UNESCO has taken action within the framework of its mandate, in particular to protect culture. A new progress report was released on Tuesday.
“We must safeguard the cultural heritage in Ukraine, as a testimony of the past but also as a catalyst for peace and cohesion for the future, which the international community has a duty to protect and ...
Thursday, 3 March 2022
Following the adoption by the United Nations General Assembly of the Resolution on Aggression against Ukraine, and in light of the devastating escalation of violence, UNESCO is deeply concerned by developments in Ukraine and is working to assess damage across its spheres of competence (notably education, culture, heritage and information) and to implement emergency support actions.
The UNGA ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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, ...
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 ...
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, ...
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 ...
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 ...
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: ...
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) ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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' ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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) ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Friday, 1 October 2021
The Third Cycle of Periodic Reporting (2018 – 2024), a global World Heritage conservation monitoring exercise carried out in six-year cycles, carries on this September with reporting in the Latin America and the Caribbean region.
World Heritage site managers and national focal points of the 147 World Heritage properties (101 cultural, 38 natural and 8 mixed sites) in the Latin America and ...
Thursday, 30 September 2021
UNESCO is launching launch a call to constitute a roster of volunteer experts, prioritizing local and regional experts in the field of biodiversity and land restoration, environmental management and environmental law, as well as knowledge holders.
Volunteer experts will provide technical advice, generate data, build partnerships and provide training so that local actors, particularly ...
Monday, 27 September 2021
According to World Heritage in the face of COVID-19 (2021), World Heritage sites experienced a 66% drop in visitation and a 52% decline in ticket sales in 2020 as a result of COVID-19. In collaboration with the Advisory Bodies to the 1972 World Heritage Committee in the framework of the UNESCO Task Force on Culture, Tourism and COVID-19, UNESCO is now working on gathering more in-depth data ...
Thursday, 16 September 2021
The International Advisory Committee (IAC) on World Heritage Sites in Uzbekistan was officially opened in Khiva and online on 15 September 2021, within the framework of the International Cultural Forum “Central Asia at the Crossroads of World Civilizations”.
The initiative to establish this committee together with UNESCO was put forward by the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan H.E. Mr. ...
Thursday, 16 September 2021
In the framework of the international assistance "Establishment of the Tentative List of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea", the World Heritage Centre, in collaboration with ICOMOS and IUCN, organized this Friday 10 September 2021 an online workshop for the elaboration of the Tentative List of Equatorial Guinea.
This first session brought together a national team of cultural and natural ...
Tuesday, 14 September 2021
Recruitment of a Scientific Coordinator.
The increasing impact of disasters in Africa and their growing complexity is a great concern for both heritage professionals and decision makers. It is expected that in the next decade, climate change will lead to more frequent extreme weather events, reaching to broader areas.
Cultural heritage in all of its forms is also increasingly at risk due to ...
Thursday, 9 September 2021
This year, July 8 marked not only the 13th anniversary of the inscription of France’s Lagoons of New Caledonia: Reef Diversity and Associated Ecosystems on the UNESCO World Heritage List, but also the Day of the Turtle in New Caledonia. In celebration, the local and traditional communities, government representatives, scientists and youth came together to agree on a sustainable path forward ...
Thursday, 9 September 2021
Ms Darwina L Neal, left, with Dr Mechtild Rössler and others at Oakland Plantation during a US/ICOMOS symposium on landscapes held in Natchitoches, Louisiana, USA in March 2004 .© ICOMOS/IFLA Cultural Landscape Scientific Commiittee
Landscape architect and conservationist Ms Darwina L. Neal, one of North America’s most renowned experts in cultural landscape conservation, passed away on 4 ...
Monday, 6 September 2021
The new commitment was announced by Eddie Rich, CEO of the International Hydropower Association (IHA) during a workshop on “No-Go in World Heritage and other protected areas: success stories in leveraging the private sector and remaining challenges” at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Marseille, France.
The commitment stipulates that no new hydropower projects should be developed in ...
Thursday, 2 September 2021
TheIUCN World Conservation Congress, taking place in Marseille, France and online from 3 to 11 September 2021, will drive action on nature-based recovery, climate change and biodiversity through events, exhibits and forums.
The IUCN World Conservation Congress comes just months before CBD will be adopting the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, setting the international biodiversity ...
Thursday, 19 August 2021
The new guidelines published by UNESCO and the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) put forward a standard methodology for evaluating the impact of protected areas on the local economy.
The guidelines aim to help national stakeholders, protected area managers and researchers count visitation and measure economic impacts consistently through a standardized approach. Developed ...
Thursday, 19 August 2021
Amid the rapidly unfolding events, and twenty years after the deliberate destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas, a World Heritage site, UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay “calls for the preservation of Afghanistan’s cultural heritage in its diversity, in full respect of international law, and for taking all necessary precautions to spare and protect cultural heritage from damage and ...
Thursday, 19 August 2021
The W-Arly-Pendjari Complex (WAP) is a transnational property (about 450 km border) shared by the Republic of Niger, Burkina Faso and the Republic of Benin in West Africa. The Niger part of the property was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1996. It will be extended in 2017 to its Benin and Burkina Faso parts. The site is also a transboundary biosphere reserve. In addition to pressures ...
Thursday, 19 August 2021
At its 40th session (Istanbul/UNESCO, 2016), the World Heritage Committee highlighted that the List of World Heritage in Danger needed to be better understood and therefore decided that this issue be formally addressed in order to overcome the negative perception of this component of the Reactive Monitoring process (Decision 40 COM 7).
As presented to the World Heritage Committee at its ...
Thursday, 12 August 2021
Today is International Youth Day, when we focus on the future guardinas of our irreplaceable UNESCO World Heritage.
If heritage is what we leave behind for future generations, we need to work with young people to protect it. This International Youth Day, we wish to highlight the Young Professionals Forum which took place during the extended 44th session of the World Heritage Committee.
In ...
Monday, 9 August 2021
UNESCO and its World Heritage Centre have observed with concern the large number of fires that have struck Greece and other countries in Southern Europeand the Mediterranean in recent weeks.
According to information provided by experts and press reports, firefighters continue to battle major fires in Greece, including one that could impact the World Heritage site “Archaeological Site of ...
Monday, 9 August 2021
In the Lakota language of North America, the word “Mitákuye Oyás’iŋ” means “all is related” or “all my relatives” – both human and non-human. In Hawaiian, the phrase “ike loa” means “to see much” and describes a philosophy of lifelong learning to better understand our relationship with the world. And in the nearly extinct Nǀuu language of South Africa, the word “lgqe” refers to the life-force ...
Friday, 6 August 2021
UNESCO wishes to express its deep concern about the reports on the expansion of the conflict to the city of Lalibela (Ethiopia), which hosts the Rock-Hewn Churches.
UNESCO calls for the respect of all relevant obligations under international law in ensuring the protection of the Outstanding Universal Value and legacy of this precious site by refraining from any act that may expose it to ...
Friday, 6 August 2021
UNESCO Addis Ababa Liaison Office in collaboration with the World Heritage Centre (WHC) and financial support from the People’s Republic of China, organized a Training workshop on “enhancing the implementation capacity of the 1972 World Heritage Convention ” which took place from 3 to 5 August 2021, in Adama Town, Ethiopia. The meeting brought together 43 participants from ministries and ...
Tuesday, 3 August 2021
In parallel to the extended 44th session of the World Heritage Committee, the UNESCO World Heritage Centre (WHC), in close collaboration with the African World Heritage Fund (AWHF), organised an online side event, “Looking into the future: Highlights of the Regional Action Plan for Africa (2021 – 2027)” on 30 July. The event reflected upon the objectives and challenges foreseen in the ...
Friday, 30 July 2021
Last month, the Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System (Belize) appointed its first Chief Resilience Officer (CRO) as part of the global Resilient Reefs Initiative that aims to empower local communities to adapt to a changing climate.
Following in the footsteps of the CROs at the Ningaloo Coast in Australia and the Lagoons of New Caledonia in France, Ms. Kalene Eck, the newly appointed CRO in ...
Friday, 30 July 2021
The World Heritage Committee today inscribed the transnational property of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire – The Danube Limes (Western Segment) on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.
Frontiers of the Roman Empire – The Danube Limes (Western Segment) features components in Austria, Germany, and SlovakiaIt covers almost 600km of the whole Roman Empire’s Danube frontier. The property formed part ...
Wednesday, 28 July 2021
The World Heritage Committee today added four sites to UNESCO’s World Heritage List and one extension to an existing transnational natural site in Europe.
The new cultural sites are located in Italy, Slovenia, the Russian Federation and the United Kingdom. The natural site inscribed today is Ivindo National Park in Gabon. The World Heritage Committee also approved an extension to the ...
Tuesday, 27 July 2021
The World Heritage Committee today added 13 cultural sites to UNESCO’s World Heritage List and one extension to an existing cultural site in Mexico. Roșia Montană Mining Landscape (Romania), was simultaneously inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger pending the removal of threats to its integrity posed by possible extractive activities.
These additions were made during the ...
Monday, 26 July 2021
The World Heritage Committee today added seven sites to UNESCO’s World Heritage List. Four of the sites have been inscribed for the natural attributed: Amami-Oshima Island, Tokunoshima Island, northern part of Okinawa Island, and Iriomote Island (Japan), Getbol, Korean Tidal Flats (Republic of Korea), Kaeng Krachan Forest Complex (Thailand) and Colchic Rainforests and Wetlands (Georgia). ...
Sunday, 25 July 2021
The World Heritage Committee today inscribed Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yuan China (China), Kakatiya Rudreshwara (Ramappa) Temple, Telangana (India), Trans-Iranian Railway (Iran), and Paseo del Prado and Buen Retiro, a landscape of Arts and Sciences (Spain), on UNESCO’s World Heritage List during its 44th session held online and chaired from Fuzhou (China).
China, Quanzhou: ...
Saturday, 24 July 2021
The World Heritage Committee today inscribed five cultural sites, including one transnational property, in Saudi Arabia, Austria, Belgium, Czechia, France, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland on UNESCO’s World Heritage List during its 44th session held online and chaired from Fuzhou (China).
The following sites were inscribed today:
Saudi Arabia, Ḥimā ...
Thursday, 22 July 2021
The World Heritage Committee, during its Extended 44th session, has officially taken note of the 10th Anniversary of the adoption of the World Heritage Capacity-Building Strategy (2011 - 2021).
To mark this celebration, the World Heritage Centre is pleased to announce that a dedicated capacity building webpage has been made available to centralize all on-going and future capacity building ...
Wednesday, 21 July 2021
The World Heritage Committee, holding its 44th session in Fuzhou and online, decided to delete the property “Liverpool – Maritime Mercantile City” (UK) from the World Heritage List, due to the irreversible loss of attributes conveying the outstanding universal value of the property.
Liverpool – Maritime Mercantile City was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2004 and on the List of World ...
Monday, 19 July 2021
The World Heritage Committee, meeting online since 16th of July, today decided to remove Salonga National Park (Democratic Republic of the Congo) from the List of World Heritage in Danger due to improvements in its state of conservation.
The Committee welcomed the clarification provided by the national authorities that the oil concessions overlapping with the property are nul and void and ...
Sunday, 18 July 2021
The master's programme in World Heritage Studies (WHS) at BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg, Germany now opens its doors towards a full online study experience.
The World Heritage Studies programme began in 1999 and its graduates from more than two decades have established a strong alumni network of professionals in the World Heritage field. Starting from October 2021, the programme offers a new study ...
Friday, 16 July 2021
The World Heritage Committee’s 44th session opened today in Fuzhou (China) at the Fuzhou Strait Culture and Art Center, and continues online until 31 July. During the session, the 21-member Committee will notably examine the state of conservation of 255 sites already inscribed on the World Heritage List, 53 of which also figure on the List of World Heritage in Danger.
In her opening ...
Saturday, 10 July 2021
The UNESCO World Heritage Centre is receiving a high number of e-mails expressing great concern for the possible extinction, in the near future, of the vaquita, a critically endangered porpoise endemic to the Islands and Protected Areas of the Gulf of California (Mexico).
Inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 2005, the property of the Islands and Protected Areas of the Gulf of ...
Thursday, 8 July 2021
In the framework of the implementation of the World Heritage Convention, the Rwandan National Commission for UNESCO organized in Huyé from 9 to 11 June 2021, with the technical and financial support of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, a national technical consultation to raise awareness on the importance of this Convention and to elaborate a roadmap for the preparation of the nomination file ...
Thursday, 8 July 2021
This year’s Forum is being held online with nearly 100 World Heritage Site Managers from around the world from 7 to 13 July, together with the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Advisory Bodies (ICCROM, IUCN and ICOMOS), heritage experts and representatives of various Chinese heritage institutions.
H.E. Mr. Tian Xuejun, Chairperson of the extended 44th session of the World Heritage Committee ...
Wednesday, 7 July 2021
A technical workshop was organized to strengthen capacities of stakeholders in identifying and evaluating the impact that new projects may pose on the Outstanding Universal Value of World Heritage sites, in addition to the elaboration of the necessary mitigation measures.
The online workshop was held in collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities of Egypt, and brought together ...
Monday, 5 July 2021
Vaquita are one of the world’s most threatened mammals, with less than ten individuals thought to remain. These all exist in a small area of the Islands and Protected Areas of the Gulf of California UNESCO World Heritage site in Mexico, where entanglement in illegal fishing nets threatens their survival. The site was for this reason inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger in 2019. ...
Thursday, 1 July 2021
The 10th Anniversary of the 2011 UNESCO Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL Recommendation) took place online through a launch event for the UNESCO HUL Call for Action and a global conference on the application of the HUL Recommendation to World Heritage cities.
The online events, consisting of several meetings and workshops, took place between 16 and 24 June 2021, marking ...
Monday, 28 June 2021
On 21 June 2021, the UNESCO World Heritage Centre (WHC), the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM), the African World Heritage Fund (AWHF) and the École du Patrimoine Africain (EPA) brought together Ambassadors, site managers, and African heritage experts for the online launching of the project for the Capacity-building in risk ...
Friday, 25 June 2021
Following the first meeting held on 1 April 2021, the UNESCO World Heritage Centre organized an online technical meeting on 11 June to support the process of drafting the Desired state of conservation for removal (DSCOR) of Leptis Magna from the List of World Heritage in Danger, and the needed corrective measures.
The online meeting brought together representatives of Libyan authorities, ...
Wednesday, 23 June 2021
On 8 June 2021, UNESCO, the Ghana Museums and Monuments Boards (GMMB), and the Netherlands represented by the Dutch Ambassador, H.E. Mr. Ron Strikker, inaugurated the Ussher Fort Slave Museum and Documentary Centre in Accra, after two years of rehabilitation work.
Ussher Fort, formerly called Fort Crèvecœur, is one of 28 components of the serial World Heritage property Forts and Castles, ...
Friday, 18 June 2021
The World Heritage Committee’s 44th session will be chaired from Fuzhou (China) and take place online from 16 to 31 July, combining current work and issues left outstanding since last year, when the annual meeting was postponed due to COVID-19. The extended session will be chaired by Tian Xuejun, China’s Vice Minister for Education and Director of China’s National Commission for ...
Friday, 18 June 2021
COVID-19 has impacted all sectors and all regions, and the world’s over 1,000 UNESCO World Heritage properties are no exception.
To understand the impact of COVID-19 on World Heritage one year after the start of the pandemic, UNESCO launched a far-reaching survey of site managers and national authorities and have published the results in the report ‘World Heritage in the face of ...
Wednesday, 16 June 2021
Following the launch of the first regional competition for Eastern Africa entitled: “Mobilizing Youth Engagement in the Celebration of African World Heritage Day - 5th May 2021,” six (6) proposals from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda were selected as finalists and will receive 5000 USD grants to raise awareness and engagement of youth for the protection and promotion of ...
Wednesday, 16 June 2021
On 20 May 2021, invasive species experts and local management teams from the 50 UNESCO marine World Heritage sites met online to share lessons learned in the prevention and eradication of invasive species.
According to the 2020 IUCN World Heritage Outlook, 75 percent of the 50 UNESCO marine World Heritage sites are threatened by invasive species. When species are introduced to marine ...
Tuesday, 15 June 2021
Following the official launch of the project “ Supporting capacity-building of World Heritage sites in East Africa (Comoros, Kenya, Madagascar, Somalia, United Republic of Tanzania)” supported by the Sultanate of Oman, the UNESCO World Heritage Centre (WHC) organized the first consultation meetings with concerned national institutions and partners of the five beneficiary countries, from 27 ...
Tuesday, 8 June 2021
World Oceans Day
How Marine World Heritage builds resilience for people and nature
Spread across 37 nations from the tropics to the poles, the 50 UNESCO marine World Heritage sites are among the ocean’s most productive waters. Their abundance of marine life is vital to sustain the livelihoods of indigenous communities, local businesses and artists alike.
This year’s United ...
Friday, 4 June 2021
This year’s World Environment Day will launch and focus on the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration is a global rallying cry to heal our planet.
Ecosystems support all life on Earth. The healthier our ecosystems are, the healthier the planet - and its people. The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration aims to prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ...
Wednesday, 2 June 2021
The German Commission for UNESCO herewith invites UNESCO World Heritage sites and UNESCO Biosphere Reserves in Africa to submit proposals for projects that help them to overcome an existing impairment caused by the COVID 19 pandemic. Up to 20,000 Euro financial support will be provided to selected projects.
By providing financial and technical support to UNESCO World Heritage sites and ...
Wednesday, 2 June 2021
The UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) has released the first set of data for Indicator 11.4.1 related to culture for the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Agenda 2030. The results and analysis are available in a new report, Tracking Investment to Safeguard the World’s Cultural and Natural Heritage.
Indicator 11.4.1 is defined as “total per capita expenditure on the preservation, ...
Monday, 31 May 2021
UNESCO is now compensating for all greenhouse gas emissions caused by in-house and outsourced printing services at Headquarters (HQ). To make our print publications ‘carbon neutral’, UNESCO has chosen to support the development of a small scale hydropower project near Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
While UNESCO is striving to reduce ...
Friday, 21 May 2021
International Day for Biological Diversity 2021 is being celebrated under the slogan: "We're part of the solution #ForNature".
This theme was chosen to be a continuation of the momentum generated last year under the over-arching theme, “Our solutions are in nature”, which served as a reminder that biodiversity remains the answer to several sustainable development challenges. From ...
Friday, 21 May 2021
This unique fund brings together public and private donors for a common goal: better protection of nature in order to safeguard some of the most important areas on earth, including natural World Heritage sites.
The Legacy Landscapes Fund (LLF) aims to address one of the main bottlenecks for the conservation of globally significant protected areas located in the developing world: the lack of ...
Wednesday, 12 May 2021
World Heritage Young Professionals Fora are among the flagship activities of the World Heritage Education Programme, serving as a platform for bringing young professionals and heritage experts together to foster intercultural learning and exchange, to debate about common concerns and to discover new roles for themselves in heritage conservation.
As an integral part of the extended 44th ...