News

World Heritage site managers call for inclusive and effective Reactive Monitoring process.  18 site managers from across the globe met at UNESCO Headquarters, Paris, to participate in the 7th edition of the World Heritage Site Managers’ Forum. Organized in conjunction with the 47th session of the World Heritage Committee, this edition of the Forum was dedicated to the theme “Enhancing ...

With the support of UNESCO, Equatorial Guinea is taking a decisive first step forward in the development and submission of its first Tentative List, a key milestone in identifying sites that may be inscribed on the World Heritage List in the future. Still the only African country without a Tentative List and one of the only nine countries with no sites on the World Heritage List in Africa, ...

On 8 July 2025, UNESCO launched the Dive into Heritage platform at the 47th session of the World Heritage Committee, marking a key milestone in the field of digital heritage preservation. The innovative initiative, generously funded by the Ministry of Culture of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, introduces a new digital platform that brings World Heritage sites to life through 3D models and ...

UNESCO welcomes efforts to achieve lasting peace, an essential condition for the protection of cultural heritage in Cambodia and Thailand. UNESCO has initiated monitoring of cultural heritage sites using satellite imagery. According to available information, the hostilities may have caused damage to cultural heritage in both countries, including some UNESCO World Heritage sites. In ...

Thanks to the continued support of the Government of Flanders (Belgium), the World Heritage Online Map Platform has evolved into the UNESCO Sites Navigator, a dynamic geospatial platform now covering World Heritage sites, Biosphere Reserves, and Global Geoparks. Originally launched in 2023 to support the monitoring of World Heritage properties, the UNESCO Sites Navigator has evolved into a ...

In January 2023, the site was simultaneously inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List and the List of World Heritage in Danger, in recognition of its Outstanding Universal Value and the immediate threats it faces. Over the last months - in November 2024, January 2025 and, more recently, during the week of 23 June 2025 –, in response to repeated attacks suffered by the city, UNESCO ...

On 12 July 2025, the World Heritage Committee inscribed The Archaeological Landscape of 17th Century Port Royal, Jamaica on the World Heritage List. This decision marks a key milestone for Jamaica and the wider English-speaking Caribbean, coming a decade after the inscription of the Blue and John Crow Mountains as the country’s first World Heritage site. The Committee is one of the two ...

The initiative aims to protect areas recognized as World Natural Heritage Sites and Biosphere Reserves through the Heritage Emergency Fund (HEF). UNESCO is intensifying its efforts in Brazil to protect areas recognized as World Natural Heritage Sites and Biosphere Reserves in response to the rise in extreme wildfires driven by climate change. Through the Heritage Emergency Fund (HEF), the ...

The 47th session of the World Heritage Committee came to a close in Paris, France, with the inscription of 26 new cultural and natural properties on UNESCO's World Heritage List. Once again this year, the spotlight was on African heritage, with the inclusion of 4 new sites from the continent and the removal of three others from the List of World Heritage in Danger. "With 196 States ...

UNESCO, the Church of England Pensions Board, Greenbank, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and WWF call on investors to adhere to industry commitments and ensure World Heritage Site protection. UNESCO and its partners today released a report which shows the extent to which extractive industries are encroaching upon UNESCO World Heritage sites. The report, “Extractive ...

Site managers and park rangers from Costa Rica and Panama responsible for the transboundary World Heritage site of Talamanca Range-La Amistad Reserves/La Amistad National Park gathered from 8 to 11 July 2025 to discuss how to enhance sustainable tourism at the site. Organized in the framework of the UNESCO project ‘Communities for Heritage – Latin America and the Caribbean’, financed by ...

UNESCO has launched the Guidance on Wind and Solar Energy Projects in a World Heritage Context, which is the updated and extended version of an existing online Guidance which was focusing first on wind energy. The new edition continues to offer practical tools and provides advice to align renewable energy development with the protection of World Heritage properties, thus supporting States ...

The UNESCO World Heritage Committee, meeting in Paris (France), decided to remove three properties located in Madagascar, Egypt and Libya from the List of World Heritage in Danger. These removals are the result of extensive efforts by States Parties, with UNESCO's support, to significantly reduce threats to these sites. When sites are removed from the List of World Heritage in Danger, it ...

Within the framework of the UNESCO/Netherlands Fund-in-Trust project “Strengthening capacities for the documentation and conservation of Properties on the List of World Heritage in Danger in Iraq”, a training workshop was organized by the World Heritage Centre and the UNESCO Office in Iraq, at the Erbil Citadel from 29 April to 8 May 2025. This workshop brought together nineteen participants, ...

The latest edition of the World Heritage Map is now available to order! This new design, poster-sized wall map features all 1,223 World Heritage properties, illustrated with stunning photographs from across the globe. This map offers a visual journey through the richness of World Heritage sites, the various countries where they are located and key data. The featured image on this year’s map ...

A new analysis by UNESCO and World Resources Institute (WRI) reveals that 73% of World Heritage sites are highly exposed to water-related hazards, such as drought, water stress, or riverine and coastal flooding. Strengthening water stewardship is essential to protect these sites and the communities and ecosystems they sustain. A Precious Resource Under Growing Threat Water-related ...

UNESCO World Heritage Centre has launched a groundbreaking new report Climate Change in Mediterranean World Heritage Cities during a high-level online event attended by over 140 participants from international organisations, national authorities, academia, and civil society. The report addresses the intersection of three important concerns around impacts of climate change on cultural ...

First capacity-building workshop held as part of the Communities for Heritage project in Cuba. As part of the regional project “Latin America and the Caribbean: Strengthening capacities for resilient communities through sustainable tourism and heritage safeguarding,” UNESCO held the workshop “Communities for Heritage: Heritage Safeguarding and Sustainable Tourism” in the historic center of ...

UNESCO Regional Office for Eastern Africa, in collaboration with the National Museums of Kenya and the Kenya Wildlife Service, officially held the first inception meeting on the project titled “safeguarding Kenya Lake System's Unique Ecological Gem,” in Nairobi on 20 January 2025. The meeting had representatives from the Government of Kenya County Government of Baringo, County Government of ...

In an update to the joint UNESCO-WRI-IUCN report “World Heritage forests: carbon sinks under pressure”, new data reveals that fires have accounted for approximately 75% of tree cover loss in World Heritage sites. Steadily increasing tree cover loss due to fires, fueled by climate change, has led to record high emissions, and threatens the robust carbon sinks of forests in World Heritage ...