News

UNESCO is monitoring with concern the situation in the Pitons, cirques and remparts of Reunion Island, World Heritage site where fires have been raging since 25 October. According to early reports from the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion, at least 3,000 ha of the 100,000 ha property have been destroyed by the fires. Twenty-six endemic rare plant species are already known to have been ...

On 10 August 2011 the Japanese Government approved the programme proposal "Capacity Building to Support the Conservation of World Heritage Sites and Enhance Sustainable Development of Local Communities in Small island Developing States (SIDS)", with a total budget of USD 1 million. The overall objective of the project proposal is to develop regional capacity building programmes for Pacific ...

The UNESCO World Heritage Centre would like to express its condolences for the lives lost in northern Italy last week in the floods and mudslides resulting from torrential rains. Villages as well as road and railway communication lines of the Cinque Terre World Heritage site have been severely affected by the rains, and the Centre is working with the national and local authorities to ...

UNESCO has invited experts from both inside and outside of Libya to urgently examine the preservation of cultural heritage in the country, notably measures to safeguard cultural sites; prevent illicit trafficking, protect museums and strengthen cultural institutions in the wake of civil strife and the overthrow of the Gaddafi regime. The meeting - the first on protecting Libyan cultural ...

The UNESCO World Heritage Centre participated in a round table on “Attractiveness of regional assets: The creation and regionalization of added value” at the world’s first international forum of Purple Economy held in Paris, France, 11-13 October 2011 together with Carlo Petrini (Founder and President of Slow Food) and Daniel Maximin (Commissioner of the French Year on ...

Severe flooding in Thailand since mid July has this week inundated the World Heritage property of the Historic City of Ayutthaya, founded in ca. 1350 as the second capital of the Kingdom of Siam after Sukhothai. Located on an island on the Chao Praya river, the protective embankments could no longer withstand the increasing height of the floods. UNESCO Bangkok Office and the World Heritage ...

Fauna and Flora International (FFI) a longtime partner of UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre, launched a global appeal this week with the objective of helping protect over 50,000 hectares of the globally unique “fynbos” ecosystem in the Cape Floral region of South Africa.The targeted lands are in the World Heritage site’s buffer areas, contributing to the long term ...

Whale Sanctuary of El Vizcaino and Islands and Protected Areas of the Gulf of California(both located in Baja California, Mexico). The Whale Sanctuary of El Vizcaino site has been inscribed on the World Heritage List since 1993. It is the only calving and nursery area for the Eastern Pacific gray whale population, which traditionally travels there each season from the Bering and Chukchi seas ...

Born after 31 December 1975 you will be under 30 years of age in 2012. You are a native of a Mediterranean country. You wish to develop a project furthering the knowledge and understanding of Mediterranean cultures. Every year the Marc de Montalembert Foundation offers a grant of 7000 euro to enable the implementation of such projects. To apply for the 2005 Marc de Montalembert grant ...

The Northern Luzon of the Philippines was severely affected by Typhoon Pedrin (International Name: Nesat) which crossed the region on Tuesday 27 September. Its trajectory passed across the Ifugao Province and has, according to preliminary reports, caused major mud and landslides within the area of the World Heritage property of the Rice Terraces in the Philippine Cordilleras. A second typhoon ...

Financed by the Flemish Government and organized by UNESCO and its space partners, in particular Planet Action, this exhibition uses a series of remarkable examples to demonstrate the use of satellite Earth observation to assess the effects of climate change on selected World Heritage sites. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states that ‘global warming is ...

UNESCO's World Heritage Centre and HISTORY® are partnering to increase awareness about heritage preservation worldwide. As part of the three-year alliance,  HISTORY provides a monetary donation along with production services and marketing support to UNESCO's World Heritage Centre for a three year period. The announcement was made on Monday 12 September at the Tower of London (a ...

UNESCO's Commitment to Action for the cultural recovery of Jacmel (Haiti) has been accepted by the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI). The project was seeking USD 500,000 matching funds to an initiative of USD 1,000,000 to support the culture sector in Jacmel, which was badly affected by the earthquake of January 2010. In a project building on various assets of the culture sector, UNESCO ...

Mr John Zulu, site manager of Zambia's Mosi-oa-Tunya / Victoria Falls National Park and World Heritage site arrived in the U.S. August 5th to spend six weeks immersed in the details of people, park and resource management at Grand Canyon National Park as the latest "U.S. World Heritage Fellow" sponsored by the National Park Service with support from the United Nations Foundation and the ...

UNESCO Headquarters, Rooms XII, 7 to 9 November 2011 The General Assembly of States Parties to the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage will hold its 18th session during the 36th session of the General Conference of UNESCO, from 7 to 8 November 2011 all day and 9 November only in the afternoon, at UNESCO Headquarters, Room XII. The General Assembly ...

Informatics Forum, 10 Crichton Street, Edinburgh, EH8 9AB (Scotland, UK) At a time of economic crisis and environmental threat, countries everywhere have to address the dual challenge of protecting and preserving their natural and cultural heritage while maximizing their economic value. This two-day international conference on 23 and 24 November 2011 will focus on ...

[in French only] Vie de la CFU Réunion du Comite mixte de coordination, 26 avril 2011, UNESCO, Paris. Comite du patrimoine mondial, Paris, 19-29 juin 2011. Participation aux 9èmes Rencontres de l'Association des biens français du patrimoine mondial (ANBPM), Besançon, 8-10 juin 2011. Actualités sur l'avancement des projets CFU Le projet ...

The most important triennial gathering of ICOMOS will take place from 27 November to 2 December 2011 for the first time in Paris at UNESCO Headquarters. The General Assembly is accompanied by a Scientific Symposium on the theme "Heritage: Driver of Development". Both events are open to ICOMOS members and non-members alike. Visit the special website www.icomos-paris2011.com to consult the ...

UNESCO Havana, Regional Office for Culture in Latin America and the Caribbean, is pleased to introduce module 6 of the Caribbean Capacity Building Programme (CCBP) for World Heritage, Natural Heritage Management. The CCBP Training Modules is composed of a core and mandatory training module on the Application of the World Heritage Conventio n and a series of other modules focusing on the ...

The final version of the Decisions adopted at the 35th session of the World Heritage Committee, which was held at UNESCO Headquarters from 19 to 29 June 2011, is also available in English and French at the following Web address: whc.unesco.org/en/sessions/35COM