Thematic studies, World Heritage

ICOMOS thematic studies: The International Council on Monuments and Sites regularly conducts and publishes thematic studies in the context of the World Heritage Convention. An overview of the publications can be found here.

IUCN thematic studies: the International Union for the Conservation of Nature has undertaken a range of global and regional studies to support State Parties to the World Heritage Convention in the selection of potential sites.

• See IUCN thematic studies
• See also UNEP thematic studies on World Heritage.

Following the development of the Global Strategy for a credible, representative and balanced World Heritage List (1994), ICOMOS and IUCN published analyses on the World Heritage List and Tentative Lists on a regional, chronological, geographical and thematic basis. The scope of the analyses was to provide States Parties with a clear overview of the present situation, and likely trends in the short- to medium-term, with a view to identifying under-represented categories. The publications can be found here:

• Filling the gaps – an Action Plan for the futureby ICOMOS
• The World Heritage List: Future priorities for a credible and complete list of natural and mixed sites by IUCN
• UNESCO’s Global Strategy for a representative, balanced and credible World Heritage List
• World Heritage Resource Manual Preparing World Heritage Nominations (2nd edition, UNESCO 2011)