Working Group Meeting to Develop the Policy Document on World Heritage and Climate Change

By its decision 30 COM 7.1 the World Heritage Committee endorsed the “Strategy to assist States Parties to implement management responses” and took note of the report on “Predicting and managing the impacts of Climate Change on World Heritage”, which were prepared following a meeting of experts in March 2006.

One of the follow-up actions to be taken is the preparation of a “policy document” on the impacts of climate change on World Heritage properties, in consultation with various stakeholders. Because a lot of material on the subject has already been documented in the aforementioned Strategy and Report, it is felt the draft policy paper should focus mainly on addressing the issues listed under (a) to (e) of paragraph 13 of decision 30 COM 7.1.

The Working Group Meeting is bringing together experts to draft the Policy Document on World Heritage and Climate Change. This draft will be circultated widely amongst all State Parties and relevant stakeholders.

A draft of the document will be presented to the 31st session of the World Heritage Committee in June 2007 in Christchurch, New Zealand, to be later discussed at the General Assembly of States Parties in October 2007.