Joint Workshop on Marine World Heritage site selection and Marine protected areas in the Gulf and Red Sea

The Kingdom of Bahrain, in cooperation with the World Heritage Centre and IUCN-WCPA, hosted the workshop on 'building capacity for marine World Heritage'.  The workshop had three central objectives:

• Building greater capacity within the global IUCN-WCPA marine network in helping deliver World Heritage related technical support;
• Carrying out a global thematic review of marine World Heritage;
• Carrying out a review of marine heritage in the Arab region

The workshop brought together IUCN-WCPA Marine regional coordinators from up to 18 global regions, international experts, individuals and authorities on marine World Heritage and marine conservation and management in the Gulf and Red Sea sub-region.  The outcomes of the workshop are expected to accelerate the recognition of marine protected areas within the World Heritage Convention and other related protected area initiatives at global and regional levels. 

The workshop results will be published as the 'Bahrain Action Plan for Marine World Heritage' and will be available in Spring 2010. The Bahrain Action Plan will assist the future targeting of marine activities by the World Heritage Marine Programme and IUCN.