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Friday, 2 February 2018
“Wetlands for a sustainable urban future”Message from Mechtild Rössler, Director of UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre, for World Wetlands Day 2018 In focusing on the theme “wetlands for a sustainable urban future”, this year’s World Wetlands Day sheds light on the importance of wetlands for cities. Today, 50% of the world’s population live in urban areas. Forecasts expect the urban population ...
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Friday, 2 February 2018
On 25 January 2018, a joint workshop between UNESCO and FAO’s Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) was organized with the World Heritage Centre at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris to share experiences and explore areas of cooperation in the field of agricultural heritage. The workshop brought together cross-sectoral actors contributing to the safeguarding of heritage with ...
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Friday, 2 February 2018
Léon Rajaobelina is considered a pioneer in the preservation of African natural world heritage, in Madagascar and throughout the continent. He was active in the defense of protected areas and biodiversity throughout his life and worked for International Conservation for twenty years, eventually becoming a Regional Vice-President.  During this period, in 2005, he contributed to the creation ...
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Wednesday, 31 January 2018
The African World Heritage Fund is a Category 2 Centre under the auspices of UNESCO and an inter-governmental organization based in South Africa with a specific mandate of implementing the UNESCO 1972 Convention concerning the protection and promotion of world cultural and natural places in Africa. The organization seeks to appoint an Executive Director in Johannesburg, South ...
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Monday, 29 January 2018
The UNESCO World Heritage Centre and Panasonic Corporation have released the 2018 World Heritage calendar. Featuring stunning photographs of World Heritage sites from around the world, this popular calendar can be used in paper, online and tablet app versions. UNESCO and Panasonic have been creating wall calendars since 1995 and a web version since 2010. The wall calendar includes brief ...
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Friday, 26 January 2018
The World Rowing Federation, FISA, is the first global sports body to pledge a commitment to protecting World Heritage sites. The commitment has developed out of World Rowing’s Clean Water partnership with WWF International and is part of WWF’s global campaign to strengthen the protection of natural World Heritage sites. World Rowing recognizes that large sporting events can have a negative ...
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Wednesday, 24 January 2018
The World Heritage Centre currently receives numerous messages from civil society concerning the state of conservation of the World Heritage property Pirin National Park. The competent authorities of the Republic of Bulgaria as well as the World Heritage Centre and the Advisory Body IUCN are fully informed of the concerns raised. At its 40th session in 2016, the World Heritage Committee ...
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Tuesday, 23 January 2018
On 21 and 22 January 2018, European Ministers of Culture met in Davos, Switzerland, to adopt a Declaration promoting the concept of a high-quality Baukultur in Europe. This step forward is congratulated by the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, particularly as urban heritage on the World Heritage List exceeds 40% of the total sites. The adoption of the Declaration, which specifies guidelines for ...
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Thursday, 18 January 2018
In an effort to improve tourism management at World Heritage sites, the UNESCO World Heritage Centre convened an expert meeting on the development of a new and innovative tool for tourism and visitor management. Experts participating in the meeting hosted at the UNESCO HQ in Paris 15-16 January 2018 included representatives from UNESCO, the Advisory Bodies (IUCN, ICOMOS, ICCROM), site ...
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Tuesday, 9 January 2018
In a historic decision for marine conservation efforts, the Government of Belize has adopted a full oil moratorium for all Belize offshore waters, including the entire Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System World Heritage site.  The Belize reef system is the second largest reef system in the world, with approximately 200,000 Belizeans dependent on the reef for their livelihood. “The World ...
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Saturday, 30 December 2017
Friday, 22 December 2017
In addition to its generous annual contributions under the Programme Cooperation Agreement (2014-2017), the Government of Sweden decided in November 2017 to provide additional financial support to UNESCO in the amount of  SEK 3,200,000  (around USD 400,000) to strengthen the protection of heritage, as well as to promote independent, free and pluralistic media. The contribution will ...
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Thursday, 21 December 2017
The ‘Delhi Declaration on Heritage and Democracy’ was adopted at the closing session of the ICOMOS 19th General Assembly in New Delhi, India, on 15th December 2017, at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium-Auditorium in New Delhi, India. The Delhi Declaration emphasized the understanding that people's perspective is central to heritage, and the General Assembly declared that ethical principles have to ...
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Tuesday, 19 December 2017
The first meeting of the World Heritage Policy Compendium Working Group took place at UNESCO Headquarters from 6 to 7 December 2017. The Policy Compendium initiative, which will see the development of a consolidated source of World Heritage policies for use by the World Heritage Committee, States Parties and other stakeholders, is being implemented through financial support received from the ...
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Monday, 18 December 2017
An inter-regional workshop entitled “World Heritage and Sustainable Development: the Role of Local Communities” was organized at the National Museum in Karachi, Pakistan (23-24 November 2017) by the World Heritage Centre in close co-operation with the UNESCO office in Islamabad and the Department of Archaeology of the Government of Sindh Province, Pakistan. The Workshop, opened by the ...
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Wednesday, 13 December 2017
Culture, in all of its wondrous expressions, inspires more than 1.2 billion tourists to pack a bag and cross international borders each year.  It is an important means to promote inter-cultural dialogue, create employment opportunities, curb rural migration, and nurture a sense of pride among host communities. Yet unmanaged, it can also harm the very heritage cultural tourism relies ...
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Tuesday, 12 December 2017
The triennial meeting of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), taking place in New Delhi, India from 11-15 December 2017, began with the Scientific Council Meeting on 11 December in the India International Centre, New Delhi. The Opening Ceremony of the ICOMOS General Assembly was held on 12 December 2017 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium-Auditorium in New Delhi. The ...
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Monday, 11 December 2017
International Mountain Day, designated by the United Nations General Assembly in 2003 and celebrated on 11 December, highlights the importance of mountains to life on Earth. The theme for 2017, “Mountains under Pressure: climate, hunger, migration”, draws our attention to some of the most critical challenges that mountains and people living in mountain areas are currently facing. It also ...
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Friday, 8 December 2017
The UNESCO World Heritage Centre is participating in the Annual Meeting of the International Scientific Committee on Cultural Landscapes in New Delhi, India, on 7–8 December 2017, ahead of the 19th ICOMOS General Assembly (11–15 December 2017). Organized by the International Scientific Committee on Cultural Landscapes ICOMOS-IFLA (ISCCL) and ICOMOS India, this two-day ISCCL Annual Meeting ...
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Wednesday, 6 December 2017
The first joint STAB/ICOMOS Advisory Mission to a World Heritage property was carried out within the framework of the World Heritage Convention and the Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage. The World Heritage property "Ancient City of Nessebar" (Bulgaria) hosted an Advisory Mission invited by the Bulgarian authorities and carried out jointly by experts of the ...
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