News

On 18 November 2019 at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France, the 2019 edition of the UNESCO-Greece Melina Mercouri International Prize for the Safeguarding and Management of Cultural Landscapes will be announced and the award presented.   Named after the illustrious Greek actress and former Minister of Culture of Greece, Melina Mercouri, the Prize rewards outstanding efforts to protect and ...

The World Heritage Cities Programme supports countries in protecting and managing their urban heritage through theoretical application and technical advice. More than 315 World Heritage cities function as inhabited urban centres worldwide facing the challenges of balancing heritage conservation with contemporary urban development.'Changing the World: Innovations and Better Life for Future ...

UNESCO offers its sincere solidarity with the people of Japan, and in particular the residents of Okinawa, who have lost a cultural and historical symbol of the Ryukyu islands. UNESCO stands ready to assist the authorities as needed. In the early morning hours of 31 October, a number of buildings, including Shuri Castle of  the World Heritage site of “Gusuku Sites and Related Properties of ...

UNESCO and Expedia Group have signed a global agreement to promote sustainable tourism and heritage conservation through an industry-first Sustainable Tourism Pledge whose pilot phase will be launched in Thailand this year before going global. It is the first collaboration between UNESCO and a global online travel agency. The Sustainable Tourism Pledge requires tourism industry members to ...

Recent flooding threatens the World Heritage property of the Historic Town of Grand-Bassam, Côte d'Ivoire. UNESCO is sending a mission to provide technical assistance to national and local authorities in assessing the damage and collecting all the data necessary for the preparation of a risk management plan that better takes account of the flood issue. On the weekend of 11 to 13 October, ...

The Deputy-Director of the World Heritage Centre, Jyoti Hosagrahar, represented UNESCO at the First meeting of the European Commission Expert Group on Cultural Heritage in Brussels. The event was organized by the European Commission and took place on 15-16 October 2019. The European Commission Expert Group on cultural heritage was set up with the aim of continuing the spirit of cooperation ...

Some 40 female members of the armed forces of Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan, as well as female peacekeepers from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) came together in Beirut, Lebanon to discuss the protection of cultural property in the event of armed conflict. The workshop, which took place on 1-3 October 2019, was the first UNESCO-organized event specifically focused on female ...

The first guide for the insurance industry to protect our world’s priceless and irreplaceable assets was launched today at a major event by UN Environment’s Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) in São Paulo, Brazil, convening leading insurers, investors and banks. The pioneering guide, Protecting our World Heritage, insuring a sustainable future, builds on last year’s launch of the first insurance ...

Representatives from the city of Venice, the Italian government, UNESCO and ICOMOS came together at UNESCO Headquarters on 2 October 2019 to discuss the ongoing challenges facing Venice and its surrounding lagoon – an iconic site whose status as a World Heritage property is in jeopardy.  Inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1987, Venice is threatened on several fronts – from overtourism, ...

This year’s World Migratory Bird Day is dedicated to highlighting the problem of pollution with the theme, ‘Protect Birds: Be the Solution to Plastic Pollution.’ Waste and pollution are harmful to many World Heritage sites. Increased tourism means that more people are leaving trash at the world’s most iconic places. World Heritage sites are key stopover sites for birds, so the effective ...

International Day for Disaster Reduction promotes a global culture of risk awareness and disaster reduction by celebrating how people around the world are reducing their exposure to disasters. This year’s theme is based on one Target of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030: ‘Substantially reduce disaster damage to critical infrastructure and disruption of services ...

The Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority (EWCA) in collaboration with UNESCO Addis Ababa Liaison Office and the UNESCO Regional Office for Eastern Africa organized a four-day technical workshop to strengthen national capacities in preparing World Heritage nomination dossiers for natural heritage sites, which ran from 23 to 27 September 2019 in Gondar Town, Amhara Region, ...

On the occasion of the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly, UNESCO participated in several events of the Climate Summit and highlighted the role of education, science and culture in providing sustainable responses. The Director-General supported the call of six South American countries to conserve and protect the Amazon, the world's first tropical forest, at a high-level ...

The theme of this year’s World Tourism Day is, ‘Tourism and jobs, a better future for all.’ Given the booming worldwide travel industry, tourism now generates 10% of the world’s jobs or 313 million employees.Tourism is increasingly a major source of growth, employment and income for many of the world’s countries, and is included in Sustainable Development Goal 8 for its potential to create ...

The UNESCO World Heritage Centre and the UNESCO Cluster Office in Tehran, in cooperation with the Iranian National Commission for UNESCO and the Iranian Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts, are organizing the 6th meeting of the Coordinating Committee of the Serial Transnational World Heritage Nomination of the Silk Roads from 23 to 26 September 2019 in Hamedan, Iran. The ...

On 18 September 2019, Ms Angelique Songco, Superintendent of Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park World Heritage area was honored with the esteemed 2019 KfW-Bernhard-Grzimek-Preis for her outstanding leadership in conserving the World Heritage marine site. The award is a tribute to individuals and organizations for their commitment to the preservation of the world’s most precious biodiversity and ...

The International Workshop on the Practical Application of the Salalah Guidelines for the Management of Public Archaeological Sites was opened by the authorities of the Sultanate of Oman (Office of the Advisor to His Majesty the Sultan for Cultural Affairs), with the Director of the World Heritage Centre, ICOMOS and the Director General of ICCROM.The workshop focused on the application of the ...

As part of the Third Cycle of the Periodic Reporting Exercise in Africa, over 80 participants from 46 African States Parties with 96 World Heritage properties (53 cultural, 38 natural and 5 mixed) will be meeting at Grand Bassam, Cote-d’Ivoire, from 11 to 14 September 2019, to go through the statutory processes of the World Heritage Convention.  This regional meeting organized by the World ...

Tourist guides from World Heritage Sites in Iran participated in the “World Heritage Specialist Guide Training Program” in Kermanshah from 04 to 08 August 2019 to upgrade their knowledge of World Heritage Sites and acquire new skills needed to become a specialized World Heritage tour guide.The participants composed a mixed group coming from the Iranian Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and ...

Two UNESCO World Heritage marine sites with similar conservation challenges signed an official Partnership Agreement to share ideas and best practices. The seeds of the agreement were sown at the 2010 World Heritage marine managers conference, and site-to-site exchanges over the past years were also central in achieving the recent zero emissions target for West Norwegian Fjords ...