News

Világörökség ifjú kezekben, the Hungarian version of the World Heritage in Young Hands educational resource kit for teachers, has just been published in the framework of the UNESCO Young People's World Heritage Education Project, coordinated by the World Heritage Centre and UNESCO Associated Schools. The Kit introduces the concept of World Heritage education and conservation. It was ...

On 28 January 2006, the Government of Guinea-Bissau officially deposited with the Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, its instrument of ratification, becoming the 182nd State Party to adopt the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage.The World Heritage Convention entered into force for this State Party on 28 April 2006.

A fund to help the States of sub-Saharan Africa improve the preservation of their cultural and natural heritage will be launched in South Africa on 5 May. The African World Heritage Fund will also be used to help boost the number of African sites on UNESCO's World Heritage List. Sub-Saharan Africa is severely under-represented on the List. Despite great cultural and natural diversity, ...

The Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, and the Chairperson of the World Heritage Committee, Ina Marčiulionytė, today welcomed the decision by Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation, to change the course of an oil pipeline being built across Siberia to eliminate potential risk to the World Heritage site of Lake Baikal. "I wish to congratulate President Putin for ...

The proceedings of the International Donors' Conference "Promoting and Preserving Congolese Heritage: Linking Biological and Cultural Diversity", held at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France from 13-17 September 2004, are now available as World Heritage Paper Series N° 17. The publication has been made possible thanks to the financial support of the Japanese Government. The ...

On 30 November 2005, the Government of Swaziland officially deposited with the Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, its instrument of ratification, becoming the 181st State Party to adopt the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage.The World Heritage Convention entered into force for this State Party on 28 February 2006.

The selection panel for the 2010 European Capital of Culture have recommended that the German town Essen and the Hungarian city of Pécs should share this title together with a third one, Turkey's Istanbul.Asked to explain the purpose and added value of the concept of European Capital of Culture in general, Sir Jeremy Isaacs explained that the role of the European capital of culture is ...

Since January 2006, the Malian authorities have been developing a management and conservation plan for Timbuktu, a World Heritage site since 1988. In March 2006, a management committee made up of the imams of the three mosques, representatives of all local areas, tour guides, and municipal and administrative authorities was officially created by municipal decree. The development of a ...

The World Heritage Centre highlights the importance of World Heritage sites for mirgratory birds on the occasion of the first World Migratory Bird Day launched by the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) and other partner organizations. UNESCO has a Memorandum of Understanding with CMS, and the World Heritage Centre is also working with CMS in the framework of the coordination of ...

Representatives from 15 States Parties of the Caribbean region participated in a regional training workshop on marine World Heritage held in Soufriere, St Lucia, in the vicinity of the Pitons Management Area World Heritage site from 27 February to 3 March. The purpose of the workshop was to raise awareness on nominating marine areas from the Caribbean as World Heritage and to provide the ...

Following the January 2006 meeting on the Convention on Biological Diversity's (CBD) Programme of Work on Protected Areas (PoWPA), six of the largest nature conservation NGOs and other partners have produced a joint statement charting how they are best positioned to support the implementation of the PoWPA in World Heritage sites. The statement includes a list of indicative activities that ...

The Chairperson of the World Heritage Committee, Ina Marčiulionytė, has sent a letter to the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, concerning the state of conservation of the World Heritage site of Lake Baikal.The World Heritage Committee, the intergovernmental body established by the World Heritage Convention, regularly examines the state of conservation of properties ...

The College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (CALA) at University of Minnesota, USA, has established a Center for World Heritage Studies to undertake research and service projects in partnership with UNESCO World Heritage Centre (WHC).  The objectives of this partnership are embodied in an agreement (MoU) between CALA and WHC signed on December 6, 2004. The CALA Center for World ...

A two-day expert meeting on World Heritage and Climate Change successfully concluded at UNESCO Headquarters on Friday, bringing together over 50 representatives from the States Parties to the World Heritage Convention, various international organizations, non-governmental organizations, the advisory bodies to the World Heritage Committee, and academic and scientific experts to discuss current ...

As part of its commitment to World Heritage in Portuguese-speaking countries, the Portuguese National Commission for UNESCO has generously supported the translation of the Basic Texts. These texts are made available on the UNESCO World Heritage Centre's web-page so that the broad community of lusophone countries can access and draw on this information for heritage safeguarding efforts in ...

UNESCO's World Heritage Centre has signed a partnership agreement with the French not-for-profit organization, ‘Vocations Patrimoine, l'Héritage du futur', aimed at enhancing the management capacities of professionals currently working, or intending to work in the future, at World Heritage sites. The Association, whose President is the renowned paleo-anthropologist Professor ...

Patrimonio Mundial en Manos de Jovenes, the second Spanish edition of the World Heritage in Young Hands educational resource kit for teachers has just come off the press. The 2,000 copies are currently being distributed to ASPnet schools, ASP national coordinators, National Commissions, and UNESCO Field offices in all Spanish-speaking countries in the world. The WHYH resource kit was ...

Within the framework of the World Heritage Convention, the clarity and precision of the information made available to the States Parties are two essential requirements for an appropriate implementation of the principles relating to its functioning and its application at the level of each country. Experience has shown that many of these principles are generally not well assimilated by the ...

On February 13-16, 2006, the World Heritage Centre organized the Steering Committee of the Central Africa World Heritage Forest Initiative (CAWHFI) in Libreville, Gabon. During this event, conservators and wildlife directors of the Congo, Cameroon, Gabon and the Central African Republic met with representatives of the United Nations Foundation, World Wildlife Fund for Nature, Wildlife ...

From January 30 to February 1st, 2006, a meeting was held in Paris to consider actions in support of the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity's Programme of work on Protected Areas (CBD PoWPA) in natural World Heritage sites.  To this end, the World Heritage Centre invited the Convention on Biological Diversity secretariat, representatives of six of the largest ...