World Heritage Marine Programme
50 flagship marine protected areas of Outstanding Universal Value: Beacons of Hope In a Changing Ocean
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World Heritage and Biodiversity
Biological diversity underpins ecosystem functioning and the provision of ecosystem services essential for human well-being. World Heritage properties are the most outstanding places on the planet and constitute a ...
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The World Heritage Convention is one of the most successful international instruments to protect the most extraordinary natural places on the planet, characterized by their natural beauty or outstanding ...
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Over the past few years, the security situation at the W-Arly-Pendjari Complex has become a major concern as several armed groups have been operating in the region, causing the evacuation of management staff in some ...
Corporate sector and the World Heritage ‘no-go’ commitment
Across the extractives, finance, insurance and hydropower sectors, among others, major public and private companies and industry associations have committed to protect UNESCO World Heritage sites. They have often ...
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The Tubbataha Reef Marine Park covers 96.828 ha, including the North and South Atolls. It is a unique example of an atoll reef with a very high density of marine species; the North Islet serving as a nesting site ...
The Arctic Ocean urgently needs protection as melting sea ice is opening up previously inaccessible areas to activities such as shipping, bottom trawl fishing and oil exploration, according to a scientific report ...
Facts & Figures: The Importance of UNESCO World Heritage Marine Sites for Global Biodiversity
The importance of UNESCO World Heritage Marine Sites for Global Biodiversity Facts & Figures © Adam Mitchell / Seychelles Island Foundation From the largest tropical seabird rookery to the ...
Initiative on Heritage of Religious Interest
There exist a great variety of religious and sacred sites that are representative of the different cultures and traditions of the world. Approximately 20 percent of the properties inscribed on the World Heritage ...
Evaluation Mission of the Air and Ténéré Natural Reserves
Objectives The Air and Ténéré Natural Reserves were inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1991 and on the List of World Heritage in Danger in 1992, in particular because of the impact of armed conflict. This ...
UNESCO World Heritage Forests © David Geldhof / Yosemite National Park Forests are some of the most biodiversity-rich habitats on Earth. They play a crucial role in climate regulation by ...
Saving nature and livelihoods: Belize
The Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System (BBRRS) won its place on the World Heritage List in 1996 as an outstanding natural system, consisting of the largest barrier reef in the northern hemisphere, offshore atolls, ...
Engaging Local Communities in the Stewardship of World Heritage (COMPACT)
COMPACT Engaging Local Communities in the Stewardship of World Heritage © Local communities and indigenous peoples are, and have been for centuries, the custodians of many World Heritage ...
Central Africa World Heritage Forest Initiative (CAWHFI)
Covering an area estimated at 1.62 million km2, the forests of Central Africa are home to vital biodiversity for the planet and play a central role in climate regulation and carbon sequestration.
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World Heritage – Pacific 2009 Programme
Despite its extraordinary cultural and biological diversity and richness, the Pacific is the most under-represented sub-region on the World Heritage List. To redress this imbalance, World Heritage Global Strategy ...
Engaging local communities in the conservation of the Maloti-Drakensberg Park World Heritage site
Local communities and indigenous peoples are, and have been for centuries, the custodians of many World Heritage sites. Launched in the year 2000, the Community Management for Protected Areas Conservation (COMPACT) ...
World Heritage Biodiversity Programme for India (WHBPI)
Will contribute resources towards site management, capacity building, alternative livelihoods for communities, research and fundraising activities. Objectives In April 2004, the World Heritage Centre entered into ...
Biodiversity Conservation in Regions of Armed Conflict: Protecting World Heritage in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Parc national des Virunga © Kim S. Gjerstad A program aimed at preserving ...
Enhancing our Heritage- Monitoring and managing for success in World Natural Heritage sites
Enhancing Our Heritage - Monitoring and Managing for Success in World Natural Heritage Sites was a seven-year UNESCO/IUCN project funded by the United Nations Foundation. The project commenced in 2001 and operated ...
World Heritage Centre’s Natural Heritage Strategy
In October 2006 the World Heritage Centre published the UNESCO World Heritage Centre's Natural Heritage Strategy, which was endorsed by the World Heritage Committee. The strategy outlines the guiding principles, ...
Promouvoir le Patrimoine Mondial à Madagascar
« Promouvoir le Patrimoine Mondial à Madagascar » est un programme du Centre du patrimoine mondial de l’UNESCO qui a pour finalité la mise en œuvre de la Convention du patrimoine mondial comme outil de conservation ...
Rapid Response Facility (RRF) © Oreades The Rapid Response Facility (RRF) is a fund that provides grants to protected areas in the event of a sudden crisis. We mainly finance initiatives aimed at ...
Business Skills for Natural World Heritage Site Managers programme
The Business Skills for Natural World Heritage Site Managers programme is a collaboration between international environmental charity Earthwatch, global energy company Shell and the UNESCO World Heritage Centre. The ...
Located on the south coast of the United Kingdom, the nominated site comprises approximately 155km of undeveloped coastline and countryside. The cliff exposures along the Dorset and East Devon coast provide an ...
In 1993 Tongariro became the first property to be inscribed on the World Heritage List under the revised criteria describing cultural landscapes. The mountains at the heart of the park have cultural and religious ...
Located on the east coast of the Yucatán peninsula, this biosphere reserve contains tropical forests, mangroves and marshes, as well as a large marine section intersected by a barrier reef. It provides a habitat for ...
Situated in the Pacific Ocean some 1,000 km from the South American continent, these islands and the surrounding marine reserve have been called a unique 'living museum and showcase of evolution'. Located at the ...
This national park, located in the extreme south-western tip of Java on the Sunda shelf, includes the Ujung Kulon peninsula and several offshore islands and encompasses the natural reserve of Krakatoa. In addition ...
Making Culture a Motor for ReconstructionHaiti, the "land of a thousand colours" "Haiti will certainly not die, because its painters started painting again, its poets started creating, its singers composing, its ...
State of conservation Information System
Conservation, at the core of the World Heritage Convention Article 4 of the World Heritage Convention refers to the conservation of properties inscribed on the World Heritage List and indicates that “each State ...
Natural World Heritage in the Congo Basin
UNESCO has been taking action in the Congo Basin since 2000 in order to improve the conservation and the management of natural World Heritage sites, those already inscribed as well as those which have the potential ...
World Heritage Sites and Biosphere Reserves
Sites on the World Heritage List are cultural, natural or mixed properties recognized by the World Heritage Committee has being of outstanding universal value. Biosphere Reserves are areas of terrestrial and coastal ...
The Aka Pygmies are considered the very first inhabitants of the Central African Republic. They live in the Mongoumba Forest, of Lobaye. A preparatory assistance mission, under the framework of the France-UNESCO ...
The Ehotilé Islands National Park is a group of six islands situated along the eastern shoreline of the Côte d’Ivoire that shelters a complex and diverse flora and fauna. It was listed as a Ramsar Site (see the ...
Preparatory assistance for the inscription of Koutammakou, the Land of the Batammariba, Togo
The Koutammakou landscape in north-eastern Togo, which extends into neighboring Benin, is home to the Batammariba people whose remarkable mud tower-houses have become a symbol of Togo. In this landscape, nature is ...
In 1994, the World Heritage Committee launched the Global Strategy for a representative, balanced and credible World Heritage List. Crucial to the Global Strategy are efforts to encourage the nomination of ...
The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR) was the first of three mountain railways of India to be inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1999. The property was extended in 2005 and 2008 to include two other railroads ...
Restauration and revitalisation of the Complex of Hué Monuments and historical town, Viet Nam
Hué, Viet Nam, is one of the last large fortified citadel cities of south-east Asia which was the imperial capital until 1945. The Complex of Hué Monuments has exceptional architectural and landscape heritage which ...
Preparatory assistance for the inscription of the Southern Oasis of Morocco
At the initiative of the Permanent Delegation of Morocco and the “Agence pour la promotion et le développement économique culturel et social des provinces du Sud du Royaume du Maroc” (agency for the economic, ...
Zeugma is an ancient city situated on the Euphrates south of Turkey. It is composed of two cities on either side of the Euphrates: Seleucia and Apamea. The construction of a new dam on the Euphrates in Turkey ...
Seminar at the Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans (France) on Tourism and World Heritage Sites
An international expert meeting focusing on “Tourism and World Heritage Sites” was held from 6 to 8 March 2008 at the Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans, France. (The Saltwork is part of a property inscribed on the ...
The Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage was signed on 16 November 1972. The 30th Anniversary celebrations included the organization of the international conference “World ...
The objective of this project was to establish a global network of World Heritage forests to assist the World Heritage Forest Programme.In 1998, the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), IUCN and the ...
“Public works and heritage”. International seminar in Paris, (France) on bridges
Connecting river banks and cultures, bridge are a work which has, today, acquired great symbolic value, whether as historical testimony or contemporary creation. Reconstruction of the Mostar Bridge (which is part of ...
The rationale of this project was to provide technical assistance through an advisory mission for the development of management mechanisms and tourism management for two recently inscribed sites, one natural and one ...
Emergency assistance to the Okapi Wildlife Reserve of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Okapi Wildlife Reserve has been on the World Heritage List since 1996. It occupies about one-fifth of the Ituri forest in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, near the borders of Sudan and ...
Rapid Response Facility (RRF) Protecting natural World Heritage sites in times of crisis
Natural World Heritage sites face many challenges that threaten their existence. They represent a global heritage recognized as being of outstanding universal value, unique and irreplaceable. As the rate of global ...
Disaster Risk Management Plan for Quebrada de Humahuaca
This project aims to fund the elaboration of a Risk Management Plan for the property Quebrada de Humahuaca by providing technical support to the State Party of Argentina and to provide specific training to the local ...
World Heritage and Ramsar Convention on Wetlands
64% of the world’s wetlands have disappeared since the beginning of the last century. In most regions across the world, wetlands continue to decline compromising the benefits that wetlands provide to people. ...
Lately, the Djoudj National Park is subject to discharges of agricultural effluents and proliferation of invasive plants that threaten its natural balance. This situation is notably due to the installation of rice ...
Africa nature: a capacity building program for natural World Heritage in Africa The Africa Nature capacity building program was launched in 2011 to improve management effectiveness at natural World Heritage sites ...
Enhancing the implementation capacity of the 1972 Convention at Natural World Heritage sites
Ethiopia is among the African countries, which have nine sites inscribed on the World Heritage List. Eight cultural sites and only one natural property, the Simien National Park inscribed in 1978. The Ethiopian ...
World Heritage and Extractive Industries
Over the years, and based on the many cases which have arisen at natural World Heritage properties, the World Heritage Committee has expressed many times its clear position that that mineral, oil and gas exploration ...
CAWHFI component funded by the European Commission (2016-2020)
CAWHFI component financed by the European Commission (2016-2020) Between 2016 and 2020, funding from the European Commission enabled CAWHFI to strengthen the monitoring of the TRIDOM and TNS landscapes, an area of ...
Patrimoine mondial naturel d'Afrique centrale
Dans le cadre de l'Initiative pour le patrimoine mondial forestier d'Afrique centrale (CAWHFI), le Centre du patrimoine mondial de l'UNESCO a organisé un atelier qui visait à identifier et à caractériser, parmi les ...
Activities in Ujung Kulon National Park and Komodo National Park, Indonesia
At Ujung Kulon National Park Indonesia's Forestry Department and local NGOs are working on strategies to help poor local communities benefit from their natural resources in a more sustainable way. Ujung Kulon houses ...
Activities in Tikal National Park
At Tikal National Park in Guatemala, the Institute of Anthropology and History, part of the culture ministry, is working to protect one of the world's most important ancient Mayan sites and part of the largest ...
Activities in Whale Sanctuary of El Vizcaino
El Vizcaino Biosphere Reserve in Baja California, Mexico, is focusing on developing locally based ecotourism to address threats to the coastal lagoons, which shelter the gray whale, harbour seal, California sea ...
International Safeguarding Campaign of the City of Venice (1966, Italy)
Venice, with its surrounding lagoon, is unique. In this city on the water, where the idea of terra firma is meaningless, a thousand years has seen the creation of an extraordinary museum of architecture. But this ...
Business Planning for World Heritage Site Managers - a Toolkit
This project focused on strengthening the business planning capacity of non-profit organisations (government agencies, NGOs) charged with the responsibility for the management and protection of natural World ...
Philippines - Embedment Mooring System For Tubbataha World Heritage Site
Rationale: Tubbataha is a no-take area and the only activities allowed are tourism, which generates funds for conservation, and research. Since the late 1970s, when dive tourism "discovered" Tubbataha, boat ...
Tunisia - Development of an emergency plan for the safeguard of the Ichkeul National Park
The program consists first in organizing a study preparatory workshop in order to elaborate the strategy that should lead to a sustainable use of the water resources of the Ichkeul National Park, then in monitoring ...