Building a Global Sustainable Network of World Heritage Site Managers
The overarching vision of this World Heritage project is to establish links and channels of communication among World Heritage Site Managers around the world by providing a web and a social media platform to share ...
UNESCO advocates the reaffirmation of identity, mutual respect, dialogue, and unity in diversity, solidarity and a positive interaction among the cultures of the world. This is valid for all areas, including for ...
Enhancing the credibility of the World Heritage List: Tentative List good practices
Tentative Lists are inventories of sites forming part of the cultural and natural heritage of a State Party, which have a strong potential to be inscribed on the World Heritage List. These national inventories are ...
Uplifting the perception of the List of World Heritage in Danger
Article 4 of the World Heritage Convention refers to the conservation of properties inscribed on the World Heritage List and indicates that “Each State Party to this Convention recognizes that the duty of ensuring ...
Based on a strong appeal from national and local stakeholders, the 2030 Agenda adopted by the UN General Assembly integrated, for the first time, the role of culture, through cultural heritage and creativity, as an ...
Cash for work: promoting local employment through heritage conservation in historic cities (Yemen)
In the context of long-standing conflict, a cash-for-work scheme provides young people with employment opportunities while contributing to the conservation of urban heritage in four historic cities.
Community conservation: Timbuktu
As of May 2012, the Government of Mali sought help from the international community through UNESCO. Timbuktu and the Tomb of Askia were placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger and UNESCO initiated a series of ...
Conservation as a driver for development: the case of Vigan (Philippines)
Along with the nomination process of the Historic City of Vigan as a World Heritage site in 1999, the local government developed an ambitious conservation and management plan for the site. By implementing this ...
Between 2013 and 2020, an extensive programme of expert surveying, studies and conservation works aimed to reinforce and stabilise the military structures of the World Heritage site. The programme was implemented ...
Creating reconciliation: Mostar Bridge
During the conflict that tore apart the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, the beautiful Old Bridge in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, was completely destroyed.
Daily monitoring system of heritage sites in the Baekje Historic Areas (Republic of Korea)
The daily monitoring of the conservation status of the heritage sites is carried out by local residents, who were trained as daily heritage inspectors by the managing authority. This monitoring system is a flexible, ...
Developing an official UNESCO World Heritage Mobile application
UNESCO seeks to encourage the identification, protection, preservation and conservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity. This is embodied in the ...
Developing sustainable rural tourism in San Gimignano (Italy)
In reaction to the sharp increase in incoming visitors over the last decades, San Gimignano has developed several initiatives to support jobs and local livelihoods while respecting the town’s cultural heritage, ...
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 ...
Emergency Safeguarding of the Portico of the Temple of Bel in Palmyra
In summer 2016, the Temple of Bel, among other important archaeological monuments of the World Heritage Site of Palmyra, was intentionally destroyed. An element of the structure of the Temple, the Portico, remained ...
The site’s values are communicated to the public through signage, publications and interpretation at visitor centres. The Maori have been involved in creating displays explaining the cultural and natural ...
From port city to World Heritage site: case study of George Town (Malaysia)
The multi-cultural historic city of George Town developed a strategy to build on its rich and diverse cultural heritage as a resource for local development and livelihoods after its free trade port status was ...
Heritage-based urban planning for Sustainable Development in Gwalior and Orchha (India)
A new initiative aims to implement the approach of the 2011 UNESCO Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape in the Indian cities of Gwalior and Orchha. The project is born out of a collaboration between the ...
Improving the Effectiveness of the World Heritage Reactive Monitoring Process
The Reactive Monitoring process established under the World Heritage Convention is one of the most comprehensive systems of monitoring ever developed under an international legal instrument in conservation. However, ...
Through a series of strategic actions, Urbino has sought to improve its environmental sustainability and promote climate change mitigation and adaptation. An update of the management plan is currently under way in ...
Management of World Heritage Sites in Armenia
UNESCO seeks to encourage the identification, protection, preservation and conservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity. This is embodied in the ...
Mitigating threats to Rock Art Heritage in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe has benefited from several initiatives in the field of Rock Art conservation. These initiatives mainly consisted of participation in training programmes with sub-regional scope that took place about a ...
Participatory Management Plan for Jesuit and Franciscan Missionary Heritage
This project aims to strengthen the management capacity between the authorities responsible for cultural heritage management in Bolivia, and ensure the active participation of departmental, regional and local ...
Preserving traditional farming through cooperative systems in Røros (Norway)
A farming cooperative system conserves the agricultural landscape around the historic town of Røros and promotes sustainable tourism.
Promoting traditional environmental knowledge in the M’Zab Valley (Algeria)
The traditional settlements of the M’Zab valley were adapted to their environment and climate. Floodable areas were occupied only by temporary structures and not by dwellings. Water infrastructure was a core ...
Properties of Religious Interest – Sustainable Management [PRI-SM] Thematic Paper & General Guidance
The issue of the protection and management of properties of religious interest is increasingly prominent in contemporary conservation debates. In today’s interconnected world grappling with serious socio-economic ...
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 ...
Reconstruction of the destroyed mausoleums of Timbuktu (Mali)
After armed conflict resulted in the destruction of several historical mausoleums, these were reconstructed using traditional knowledge systems as part of an international cooperation campaign. The reconstruction of ...
Reintroduction of hydropower in the mills district of the Town of Bamberg (Germany)
The installation of a new water turbine at the site of the former water mills in the Town of Bamberg follows traditional water practices while respecting the Outstanding Universal Value of the property. The new ...
Le but de ce projet est de financer des ateliers de formation au profit des gestionnaires du patrimoine mondial en Egypte en vue de leur permettre de maîtriser les techniques de réalisation des études d’impacts de ...
Revival of the Historic City of Sankhu (Nepal)
Sankhu is a traditional Newar settlement located in the North East of the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal, and was inscribed on the tentative World Heritage List in 2008. The April and May 2015 earthquakes had a ...
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, ...
Setting up a World Heritage management framework in Kyiv (Ukraine)
A new, unified buffer zone and a management plan aim to preserve the Outstanding Universal Value of the World Heritage site “Kyiv: Saint-Sophia Cathedral and Related Monastic Buildings, Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra” and ...
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 ...
Stratégie pour le tourisme durable dans le Parc National du Banc d’Arguin
Le projet vise à aider le Parc National du Banc d’Arguin (PNBA) à développer une stratégie pour le tourisme durable dans ce bien du patrimoine mondial, en donnant un rôle effectif aux communautés locales des ...
Strengthening residents’ connection with their gardening heritage in Bamberg (Germany)
In the city of Bamberg, traditional gardening practices are part of the city’s strategy to promote urban sustainability. The COVID-19 pandemic helped to strengthen the local community’s connection with its gardening ...
Transmitting and documenting the vernacular architecture of the Asante Traditional Buildings (Ghana)
Published in 2021, a new edition of the 1999 reference publication “Asante Traditional Buildings” updates and expands this important record of their outstanding architecture, making it once again available for the ...
Washing of the Valongo Wharf, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)
The symbolic ritual of cleaning and purification pays tribute to the spirits of the African ancestors who reached this entry port in captivity. The ritual started shortly after the discovery of the remains in 2011, ...
The two Temples of Ramses II at Abu Simbel and the Sanctuary of Isis at Philae are the most illustrious of the Nubian Monuments from Abu Simbel to Philae (Egypt), listed as World Heritage since 1979. The Great ...
Marine Programme: State of Conservation Reporting
Marine Programme: State of Conservation Reporting © World Heritage status signifies that a place is unique and irreplaceable. But the recognition comes with responsibilities. As a condition for ...
Safeguarding Koguryo Tombs & Mural Paintings in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
Since 2001, with the support of the UNESCO/Republic of Korea Funds-in-Trust, the World Heritage Centre coordinates conservation and capacity building activities in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to ...