Policy Compendium

3. "(...)

e) [The World Heritage Committee will] promote World Heritage through communication, education, research, training and public awareness strategies."

Paragraph 217

“States Parties are encouraged to raise awareness of the need to preserve World Heritage. In particular, they should ensure that World Heritage status is adequately marked and promoted on-site”.

Paragraph 219

“The World Heritage Committee encourages and supports the development of educational materials, activities and programmes.”

[The General Assembly adopted the Vision and Action Plan by Resolution 18 GA 11; the paragraph refers to the report]

9. "(…) Conservation and communication are complementary tasks. For World Heritage, increased awareness and knowledge of World Heritage objectives can increase commitment to conserve, engage with and support cultural and natural heritage sites (…)."

Synthesis based on relevant Committee decisions

At site-level, the World Heritage Committee encourages States Parties to organize awareness-raising activities for local population and surrounding communities, to mobilize their active participation in heritage conservation and management (based on Case law further to decisions on the State of Conservation).

Annex 5

“[World Heritage site] should consider visitor facilities that may include interpretation/explanation (signage, trails, notices or publications, guides); museum/exhibition devoted to the property, visitor or interpretation centre; and/or potential use of digital technologies."

Synthesis based on relevant Committee decisions

The World Heritage Committee recommends to develop a comprehensive site presentation and interpretation programme for visitors (based on Case law on decisions on the State of Conservation).

Paragraph 264

“The Emblem (…) has fund-raising potential that can be used to enhance the marketing value of products with which it is associated. A balance is needed between the Emblem's use to further the aims of the Convention and optimize knowledge of the Convention worldwide and the need to prevent its abuse for inaccurate, inappropriate, and unauthorized commercial or other purposes.”

Paragraph 267

“States Parties to the Convention should take all possible measures to prevent the use of the Emblem in their respective countries by any group or for any purpose not explicitly recognized by the Committee. States Parties are encouraged to make full use of national legislation including Trade Mark Laws”.

Paragraph 26

"The current Strategic Objectives (also referred to as “the 5 Cs”) are the following:

11. “The potential impacts of Climate Change range from physical, to social and cultural aspects. (…). Experience and lessons learned on addressing Climate Change impacts stress the need for using a number of management responses at national and local levels. The World Heritage Convention provides an opportunity to develop strategies to implement relevant actions in respect of cultural and natural heritage properties threatened by Climate Change. Given the complexity of this issue, States Parties may request guidance from the World Heritage Committee to implement appropriate management responses to face the threats posed by Climate Change on their natural and cultural properties inscribed on the World Heritage List”.

13. “Conservation is the management of change, and Climate Change is one of the most significant global challenges facing society and the environment today. The actions that need to be taken to safeguard heritage are threefold:

• Preventive actions: monitoring, reporting and mitigation of Climate Change effects through environmentally sound choices and decisions at a range of levels: individual, community, institutional and corporate.

• Corrective actions: adaptation to the reality of Climate Change through global and regional strategies and local management plans.

• Sharing knowledge: including best practices, research, communication, public and political support, education and training, capacity building, networking, etc.”

15. “It is noteworthy that there are strong links between natural and cultural heritage and the Climate Change issue could be used as an opportunity for the two parts of the Convention to be brought closer together”.

16. “(…) Climate Change is one risk among a number of challenges facing World Heritage sites. This threat should be considered in the broader context of the conservation of these sites”.

5. "[The World Heritage Committee] decides to maintain credibility, conservation, capacity building and communication as strategic objectives in the implementation of the Convention whilst restating the different components and, recognizing the critical importance of involving indigenous, traditional and local communities in the implementation of the Convention, further decides to add ‘communities’ as a fifth strategic objective."