News

During the evening of 25 February 2010, in Timbuktu (Mali), a stampede occurred amidst a crowd gathered outside Djingareyber Mosque. Among the crowd were local citizens and other pilgrims who had assembled there to pray on the occasion of the Mawlid festival, celebrating the birth of the Prophet Muhammad. This stampede caused 22 deaths and at least 45 persons were ...

At a year-end strategy discussion, Shell, Earthwatch and the UNESCO World Heritage Centre evaluated the results of the first year of work under their five-year programme of collaboration to enhance the business skills of managers of World Heritage sites.  During the first year, nine World Heritage site managers from three sites in South East Asia had received training in ...

Following the collapse of a minaret in the World Heritage city of Meknes, Director-General Irina Bokova expressed profound sympathy Sunday and said UNESCO's expertise was available to the Moroccan authorities in their restoration efforts. "I am deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life of people who had gathered to worship at the mosque. I extend to the families of the victims my ...

World Heritage Papers Series No. 26: Cultural Landscapes, A Handbook for Conservation and Management may be downloaded from the UNESCO World Heritage Centre website. Cultural landscapes are those where human interaction with natural systems has, over a long period, formed a distinctive landscape. These interactions, in the case of World Heritage cultural landscapes, are of outstanding ...

In response to the recent impacts of torrential rains at the Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu, a technical visit of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre was carried out by Nuria Sanz, Chief of the Latin America and the Caribbean Unit, from 6-10 February in Lima, Peru. World Heritage Centre staff met with Ministers of Environment and Tourism, Directors of the Instituto Nacional de Cultura (INC) ...

Two official signatures took place recently at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France to establish new Category 2 Centres dedicated to World Heritage preservation. The African World Heritage Fund (AWHF) and the Arab Regional Centre for World Heritage (ARC-WH), to be established respectively in South Africa and Bahrain and operated under the auspices of UNESCO, are both dedicated to reinforcing ...

[in French only] novembre 2009 - janvier 2010 Actualités sur l'avancement des projets CFU : * Atelier Fleuves et patrimoines. Paris, Senat français, 2 novembre 2009. * Réunion d'experts « Pastoralisme méditerranéen : patrimoine culturel et paysager & développement durable ». Tirana, Albanie, 12 au 14 novembre ...

On 18 January 2010 a meeting took place at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France between the Secretariats of the Convention on the Protection of the Alps and the World Heritage Convention. The 'Alpine Convention' was signed by the 8 Alpine countries on 7th November 1991, recognizing the Alps as a unique, common area which needs a common development and ...

The UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Secretariat to the World Heritage Convention, wishes to extend its best wishes to the Secretariat for the Ramsar Convention(Convention on Wetlands of International Importance) on World Wetlands Day, celebrating the 39th anniversary of its adoption. Like the World Heritage Convention, the Ramsar Convention is a site-based intergovernmental treaty which ...