The World Heritage Information Network (WHIN) is the global network of World Heritage information providers.
It was created in 1995 in order to foster the exchange of information between partner networks and World Heritage sites around the world. In addition to information carried by its partners, news is circulated through WHNEWS, the e-mail newsletter, the printed World Heritage Newsletter, and the partner websites. You also have the possibility to consult the WHIN networks partners list. For a list of individual partners, see the links attached to each of the site pages included on the World Heritage List.
The WHIN Partnership
The World Heritage Information Network is a partnership between the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, the Advisory Bodies (ICOMOS, IUCN, and ICCROM), States Parties, and those managing World Heritage sites.
If they maintain a web site, these organizations are identified as WHIN Partners and are actively encouraged to participate in delivering improved information on World Heritage sites over the web.
In order to have more informations about WHIN rules, you should consult the Guidelines for WHIN partners.
WHIN Networks Partners
Organization of World Heritage Cities (OWHC)
The Organization of World Heritage Cities (OWHC) was founded on September 8, 1993 in Fez, Morocco. The OWHC's initiatives, geared to the implementation of the World Heritage Convention, include the information and the training of municipal managers. To this end, the OWHC organizes symposia and seminars dealing with the challenges to be met in the realm of management and strategies pertaining to the development and preservation of historic sites.
Network of German World Heritage Sites
The Network promotes the co-operation between the German World Heritage Sites in the field of touristic promotion. In collaboration with the German Commission for UNESCO, the Network invites managers of German World Heritage Sites to promote with their activities the ideals and the programme of UNESCO.
Nordic World Heritage Network
The main goal of the NWHO will be to help strengthening the work concerning the World Heritage Convention and specific strategies given by UNESCO and the State Parties to the Convention. NWHO aims to contribute to World Heritage activities in the Nordic countries, and through its work with international development cooperation enhance overall activity of UNESCO within the World Heritage concept and heritage resource management generally.
Asia-Pacific Focal Point for World Heritage Managers (APFP)
The Asia-Pacific Focal Point (APFP) is a regional network for World Heritage Managers, established to share experience, knowledge and resources between countries in the region. The APFP will help Asia-Pacific countries adopt, and meet their obligations under the World Heritage Convention and will also help ensure best practice management of their World Heritage sites.
Asociación Nacional de Ciudades Mexicanas del Patrimonio Mundial
Cultural Heritage Protection Office (Asia/Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO) (Nara, Japan)
Culture in Asia and the Pacific (UNESCO Principal Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific) (Bangkok, Thailand)
Guidelines for Partnership in the WHIN
We choose to think of the WHIN as a family, undertaking projects in a collaborative and non-competitive environment, in which the valuable lessons learned by one partner can be shared with others. Good communication and collaboration are essential ingredients for such a network to function. For this reason we encourage WHIN partners to subscribe to the monthly World Heritage Newsletter, carried by the e-mail discussion list, WHNEWS@unesco.org.
The network is also a shared responsibility. At a meeting in September 1995, when the WHIN concept was formulated, participants agreed that:
The responsibilities of data provision and maintenance should be distributed to the servers closest to the source of the information.
It follows, therefore, that materials posted by one WHIN partner should not be duplicated by another. Not only would such duplication produce redundant copies in the search engine, but it would cause confusion in the reader looking for an 'authentic' copy. Changes made in the original might not be picked up by the duplicator. For these reasons, WHIN discourages copying files or duplicating information from other WWW sites (such as the World Heritage List). Rather, the WHIN encourages partners to link to other relevant participants and documents.
We also wish to encourage a network identity, to draw attention to World Heritage conservation and all its constituent partners around the world. For this reason we encourage partners to display a WHIN logo with a link to the WHIN.
Although we expect and encourage site maintainers to use the local language in displaying information about a World Heritage site, we also wish to encourage the site to maintain pages in English or French, the two "working languages" of the World Heritage Convention.