In Africa, natural heritage is often protected and sustained because it belongs to a shared system of belief and culture. Furthermore, many cultural and natural properties are transnational, and are either they are ...
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 ...
Following the 4th Global Strategy Meeting for West Africa, 16 to 19 September 1998, Porto Novo, Benin, nine African States Parties to the 1972 World Heritage Convention were invited to a meeting organised by the ...
The role of local communities in ensuring that World Heritage contributes to sustainable development was chosen by the World Heritage Committee as the central theme for the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the ...
Thanks to Victoria Ocampo (1890-1979), one of the most important Argentine cultural figures of the 20th century, Villa Ocampo (Buenos Aires, Argentina) was the privileged witness of the French-Argentine cultural ...
At the request of Bolivian authorities, UNESCO provided technical assistance to advise on a mining museum in the City of Potosí, Bolivia (Plurinational State of). Assistance was provided as part of a research ...
In the 19th century, the riches of Chile aroused the greed of European and American powers, resulting in the establishment of large industrial plants, including intensive saltpetre mining companies. The production ...
The UNESCO Chair on Cultural Heritage Management was created in 2000 and is established at the National University of Colombia, branch located in Manizales. Its main objectives are to promote an integrated system of ...
World Heritage in the Digital Age. Conferences, workshops and special events (China, Egypt, France, Mexico, Senegal) On the occasion of the 30th Anniversary of the World Heritage Convention, conferences and ...
Joya de Cerén is the name given to a rural settlement dating back to the period of the Mayan civilization. The site provides a unique window into the past. Buried in the 6th century, during a volcanic eruption, ...
With its earthen constructions unique to the Caribbean, the town of Coro, Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of), is the only surviving example of a rich fusion of local traditions with Spanish Mudéjar and Dutch ...
Workshop on urban conservation and restoration and creation of a four-language glossary. The SIRCHAL Programme (Network for the Revitalization of Latin American and Caribbean Historic Centres) has several goals ...
The UNESCO Chair in Cultural Heritage Management was established in 2000 at the National University of Colombia (branch of Manizales), at the request of the Columbian State. To celebrate its inauguration, a series ...
The Temple of Preah Vihear, which is dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva, is situated on Cambodia’s northern border with Thailand. The property consists of a series of sanctuaries which are linked by a network of paths ...
Situated in the current province of Siem Reap in the northwest of Cambodia, Angkor, the ancient capital of the Khmer Kings and the group of monuments constructed between the ninth and fifteenth centuries, was ...
The Kingdom of Wu and Six Canal Towns of the Lower Yangtze River, China, are located to the south of the Yangtze River, near Lake Tai, approximately 60 km east of Shanghai, in a landscape shaped by crisscrossing ...
The Koguryo Kingdom covered the majority of Democratic People's Republic of Korea and north-eastern China, from 227 BCE until 668 CE. Some of the most significant tangible remains of this civilisation include ...
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 ...
As part of the Indian Heritage Cities Network project, and in link with the “Rivers and heritage” initiative, a seminar was held in February 2007 in Varanasi, India. The objective was the enhancement of this ...
The city of Chandigarh was the first planned city in India post-independence in 1947 and is internationally renowned for its architecture and urban design. The master plan of the city was developed by Le Corbusier, ...
The “Historical Atlas of Kyoto: Spatial Analysis of the Memory Systems of a City, its Architecture and Urban Landscape” (In French: « Atlas historique de Kyoto: Analyse spatiale des systèmes de mémoire d’une ville, ...
North of the Tian Shan Mountains, 1608 m above sea level, is the Issyk Kul Lake, Kyrgyzstan, a natural reservoir of warm water contained in a region famous for its natural resources. In the Soviet era, the lake was ...
The Fort and Shalamar Gardens in Lahore, Pakistan, have been inscribed on the World Heritage List since 1981. The inscribed property includes two distinct royal complexes, the Lahore Fort and the Shalimar Gardens, ...
Bangkok, in Thailand, is one of the most populated cities in the world, a symbol of uncontrolled urban growth, marked by heavy pollution and huge traffic problems. In 1998, a project entitled "Humanise Bangkok" was ...
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 ...
This project’s objective was to provide technical assistance to set up management and conservation plans on several sites distributed across a vast territory.600 km south of Algiers, Algeria, the small M'Zab ...
Carried out under the aegis of the France-UNESCO Cooperation Agreement, this project aimed to strengthen local capacity and sustain actions undertaken at the local level.Surrounded by the huge Djurdjura, the Bibans ...
This project aimed to ensure the training of local skilled staff in restoration and rehabilitation, through organization of education programmes in partnership with the “Friends of Tlemcen” NGO.Tlemcen, Algeria, was ...
The project in Constantine is part of the cross-sector project “Poverty Reduction through Sustainable World Heritage Management”, launched in 2002, on the theme of eliminating poverty and extreme poverty through the ...
Ksar of Ait-Ben-Haddou, in Morocco, is a fortified village of adobe buildings and is an interesting example of earthen architecture in North Africa. It contains barns and dwellings within its defensive walls, which ...
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, ...
In 2001, the Syrian Arab Republic’s General Directorate of Antiquities and Museums (DGAM) requested technical assistance. Within the framework of the France-UNESCO Cooperation Agreement, a seminar was organised in ...
With a strategic geographic position on one of the few passageways between the Adriatic Sea and the Balkan Peninsula, and on the banks of the Osum River, Berat, Albania became a rich commercial and cultural center ...
The regional Shirak Museum, Armenia, was established in 1930. During the 1970s, tens of thousands of pieces representing the material and spiritual culture of the historical province of Shirak were collected by the ...
The transfer of responsibility from private ownership to local and territorial governments poses new management problems in the centres of European countries in transition. France, which has a long tradition in this ...
In 1992, the World Heritage Committee changed the Operational Guidelines for the inscription of cultural landscapes on the World Heritage List. It was defined as the “combined works of nature and man” as set out in ...
The construction of the Basilica Saint. Basil the Blessed, Moscow, Russian Federation, took place between 1552 and 1561 after the capture of Kazan by Tsar Ivan IV, also known as Ivan the Terrible, to commemorate his ...
The Historic Areas of Istanbul, Turkey, were inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1985, and as a strategic point in the Bosphorus peninsula between the Balkans and Anatolia, the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, ...
The “International Conference on the Seismic Performance of Traditional Buildings” was held in Istanbul, Turkey from 16 to 18 November 2000, under the patronage of UNESCO, ICOMOS and Turkey’s Ministry of Culture. It ...
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 ...
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 ...
Urban heritage preservation policies, when separated from development strategies, can lead to a marginalization of the poorest populations. Constraints caused by regulations, in the absence of assistance mechanisms, ...
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 ...
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 ...
In order to identify and protect its heritage, Cameroon launched a national inventory of cultural heritage in 2001. The French Embassy in Cameroon passed on the request for technical assistance to the French ...
The Comoros islands possess a rich cultural and material heritage as well as a rich intangible heritage. The country ratified the World Heritage Convention in 2000 and identified 4 sites for inscription on the ...
Located 200km from Brazzaville, Congo, the Royal Domain of the Mbé was inscribed on the Tentative Lists in 2008. The property, which is also of significant historical value, is made up of a group of areas linked to ...
Grand-Bassam is the first capital of the former French colony of Côte d’Ivoire, from 1893 to 1900. The historic city, or “France quarter” as it was called, was built on a stretch of land between the Ouladine Lake to ...
Ethiopia has numerous megalithic sites. The most important of them is Tiya, which was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1980. It has thirty-six monuments, including thirty-two stelae inscribed with sometimes ...
Realizing the richness of Ethiopian cultural heritage, the organization in charge of cultural heritage within the Ministry of Culture, the ARCCH (Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage), ...
Founded in the ninth century, the Agadez, Niger, occupies a prominent position on the crossroads of the principal commercial routes of the Sahara, which allowed it to play an important role in the region until the ...
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 ...
The France-UNESCO Cooperation Agreement developed several activities centred on heritage and sustainable local development in Africa in particular. Since 2003, this Cooperation Agreement initiated the organisation ...
Within the framework of the France-UNESCO Cooperation Agreement, the French Ministry of Culture and the Director General of heritage for several African countries organized a week of meetings for directors of the ...
In 2009, a programme called “Heritage and Development” was initiated under the France-UNESCO Cooperation Agreement to respond to the requests expressed during the special sessions of the Africities Summits on ...
Caribbean archaeological heritage has been the subject of enhancement initiatives at the beginning of the years 2000, to valorise underrepresented heritage on the World Heritage List in the region. An international ...
The property Vat Phou and Associated Ancient Settlements within the Champasak Cultural Landscape, Lao People's Democratic Republic, was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2001, as a cultural landscape, at the ...
The France-UNESCO Cooperation Agreement provided support to the valorisation of the Pacific Marine Heritage and support to the World Heritage Marine Programme. The “Marine heritage project: Central pacific”, on ...
Le Corbusier is one of the greatest architects of the 20th century, and his work both built and written have had a huge impact on the world, and demonstrate major technical and conceptual changes of the Modern ...
Managing a heritage site today involves much more than just conservation. It's also about site protection, enhancement and the arrangements for hosting and managing visitor flows, as well as commitment to developing ...
Learning from experiences of the Rivers and Heritage initiative The Rivers and Heritage initiative proposes to support the process of cultural development of rivers and to contribute to the protection and the ...
Cities and urban areas are the most represented types of heritage on the World Heritage List. World Heritage Cities are also among the World Heritage Properties that appear most often in state of conservation ...
In 2007, the World Heritage Centre, with the support of the France-UNESCO Cooperation Agreement, launched a study and analysis of the World Heritage List and the Tentative Lists (of States parties which have signed ...
Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are islands of the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans. They are generally small in size, relatively remote, vulnerable to environmental challenges, and ...
Pastoralism is defined as a system of livestock farming which depends, for the most part, on the generally non-intensive use of naturally-occurring plant materials for grazing, either on a farm or as part of a ...
With the support of the Flemish Government, and later within the framework of the France-UNESCO Cooperation Agreement, the World Heritage Centre launched an online Information System on the state of conservation ...
Following the international donors conference for the Rehabilitation of the Cultural Heritage in Kosovo* (13 May 2005), organised by UNESCO in collaboration with the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in ...
Developing a Sustainable Tourism Strategy for the Silk Roads Heritage Corridors © UNESCO / Roland Lin Acclaimed as the ‘greatest route in the history of mankind’, the ancient Silk Road formed the ...
The World Heritage Education Programme gives young people a chance to voice their concerns and to become involved in the protection of our common cultural and natural heritage. This brochure offers overview of the ...
At its 19th session (UNESCO, 2013), the General Assembly of States Parties to the World Heritage Convention decided (Resolution 19 GA 4) to fully apply Article 8, paragraph 2, of the World Heritage Convention which ...
Extra-budgetary Projects Latin America and the Caribbean A number of specific conservation projects within the Region undertaken mostly through funding provided by extra-budgetary resources. The projects financed ...
Heritage was long absent from the mainstream sustainable development debate despite its crucial importance to societies and the wide acknowledgment of its great potential to contribute to social, economic and ...
The results of the Second Periodic Report on the State of World Heritage in Latin America and the Caribbean were presented at the 37th session of the World Heritage Committee held in Phnom Penh (Cambodia), in June ...
The World Heritage Youth Project on Marine Biodiversity & Climate Change, held from 25th to 29th of January 2016 in Panama at the World Heritage site of Coiba National Park and its special zone of marine ...
The two years 2016-2018 UNESCO/Japanese Funds-in-Trust project “Support to the South Asian Cultural Landscape Initiatives” was officially approved by the Japanese authorities on 31 May 2016. The project aims to ...
#MyOceanPledge I pledge to protect the ocean for future generations Please do not email me Newsletter Sign the Pledge #MyOceanPledge was started by children living ...
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 ...
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 ...
Small Islands Developing States (SIDS) have a rich cultural and natural heritage, yet this is not currently fully reflected in the World Heritage List. Between 2011 and 2016, SIDS States Parties to the World ...
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 ...
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 ...
Heritage impact assessments (HIAs) and Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) are increasingly required to analyze possible effects and consequences of development on the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of World ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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, ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Objectives Established in 1959 as a multiple land use area, with wildlife coexisting with semi-nomadic Maasai pastoralists practicing traditional livestock grazing, Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) was inscribed ...
The second Photo & Story Contest for the Lake Ohrid region and its natural and cultural heritage is organized within the framework of the project "Towards strengthened governance of the shared transboundary ...
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. ...
Fourteen youth, with common interests in marine biodiversity and climate change, developed tourist guides for the Coiba National Park in Panama, in the framework of the World Heritage Youth Project on Marine ...
Climate change is becoming one of the most significant threats to World Heritage properties, jeopardizing the disappearance of their Outstanding Universal Value, their integrity and the potential for economic and ...
The issues of identification and preservation of the heritage of science and technology have been discussed at a number of international meetings organized within the framework of the UNESCO Thematic Initiative ...
The World Heritage Youth Forum is a flagship activity carried out under the World Heritage Education Programme since 1995. The forum serves as a platform by bringing young people, educators and heritage experts ...
The ‘Policy Compendium’ will aim to provide States Parties with a consolidated source of policy decisions made under the Convention. It will respond to the need of States Parties for readily accessible information ...
Voluntary annual fee by the properties inscribed on the World Heritage List Online consultation survey Online consultation survey concerning a voluntary annual fee by the properties inscribed on the World ...
Elaboration of a thematic paper proposing to the States Parties to the World Heritage Convention general guidance regarding the management of their cultural and natural heritage of religious interest. This could be ...
This case-study approach aims to define the main principles for building general guidance for World Heritage properties of Religious Interest, seeking to understand the needs, challenges and best practices for the ...
Education is the key to personal fulfilment, development, conservation, peace and well-being. Through education, young people can find new ways to build commitment and strengthen action in favour of preserving our ...
Instagram Video ContestOpen to 18 - 32 years old Post your video about an African World Heritage site using the hashtag #MyAfricanHeritage and stand the chance to win one of our prizes. Top ...
Patrimonito’s World Heritage Adventure cartoon series is a flagship activity carried out under the World Heritage Education Programme since 2002. The cartoon series aim to raise the awareness of the importance of ...
Every historical site has a story to tell, and these stories connect the past, present and future. World Heritage sites are vital sources for our culturally and socially sustainable development. As outstanding ...
The World Heritage Policy Compendium (2015-2019) The proposed activities are presented in the framework of the ongoing development of a compendium of policy for the World Heritage Convention, a project that was ...
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 ...
This project aims to strengthen sustainable natural resource management in Los Katíos National Park in a way that also provides sustainable livelihood options for local communities living in the area and its buffer ...
The first comprehensive account of the devastation wrought on the World Heritage site of the Ancient City of Aleppo during years of armed conflict in the Syrian Arab Republic has just been published by UNESCO and ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
UNESCO is currently implementing a project to develop a unique Buddhist Heritage Route for Sustainable Tourism Development in South Asia with the support from the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA). ...
One type of scientific heritage under-represented on the World Heritage List concerns sites connected with natural sciences and the development of their application through engineering and technology.
Following the collapse of several Takienta during the rainy season in 2018, an on-site emergency mission was carried out by UNESCO from 19-24 October 2018 to assess the extent of the damages caused. The mission ...
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 ...
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) ...
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) ...
The Muslim heritage of Central Europe is very rich. It is a synthesis of Eastern and European cultural elements, embodied in the values of tangible and intangible culture. This are primarily mosques and mizars ...
As endorsed by the World Heritage Committee at its 42nd session (Manama, 2018), States Parties are invited to actively contribute to the implementation of the UNESCO Initiative on Heritage of Religious Interest by ...
Lake Malawi National Park was established in 1980 as a National Park and inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1984 for its natural beauty (criterion vii) and outstanding biodiversity values, notably due to its ...
Koutammakou is a vast transboundary cultural landscape stretching from north-eastern Togo to north-western Benin. It is the land of the Batammariba, a people remarkable in particular for its highly elaborate organic ...
Lake Malawi National Park was established in 1980 and inscribed as a World Heritage site in 1984 for its natural beauty (criterion vii) and outstanding biodiversity values, notably due to its value to science as a ...
Zakouma National Park is located in southeastern Chad. Inscribed in the Tentalive List in 2005, it covers an area of nearly three hundred and five thousand (305,000) hectares. Created in 1963, Zakouma National Park ...
The Diy Gid Biy Cultural Landscape (DGB) is a set of sixteen (16) dry stone sites distributed in seven (7) villages in the Far North Region of Cameroon. The DGB sites are complexes of terraces and platforms spread ...
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 ...
Mount Nimba Strict Nature Reserve (RNIMN) (Côte d'Ivoire/Guinea) was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1981. Thereafter, the property has been inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger for 29 years due ...
In early May 2020, torrential rain occurred in and around Rwenzori Mountains National Park (Uganda), a property inscribed on the World Heritage List. The excessive rain caused heavy flooding and destroyed wildlife ...
Over the last decade, several countries from the Sahel region have experienced insecurity and conflicts generated by rebel groups. This has affected the lives of the communities, worsening the region’s economic ...
Located at the southern end of the great expanse of Lake Malawi, with its deep, clear waters and mountain backdrop, the national park is home to many hundreds of fish species, nearly all endemic. Its importance for ...
The current state and trend of World Heritage values of the Dja Faunal Reserve are threatened by pressures from development projects (dams, plantations, logging) in the periphery of the Reserve. There is concern ...
At the 43rd session in Baku (2019), the World Heritage Committee requested the State Parties “to continue reflecting on the mechanisms and tools needed to assess and guide interventions in and around urban ...
The property was inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger in 2018 due to the potentially irreversible loss of the property’s OUV caused by the impacts of various development projects (Kuraz irrigation ...