News

Marking the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018, UNESCO and the European Union teamed up to develop a new project to start in 2019 that strengthens the connections between cultural heritage, youth and education. The project has two main components: one seeks to empower a new generation of heritage professionals and another aims to bring intangible cultural heritage into the ...

Nominations are now open, with the deadline for submission 30 April 2019. The Prize rewards outstanding action to safeguard and enhance the world’s major cultural landscapes, which can contribute significantly to sustainable development and achieve a number of goals set out in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The prizewinner, who may be an individual, an institution or a ...

The third meeting of the World Heritage Policy Compendium Working Group took place from the 11th to the 13th of December 2018 at UNESCO headquarters in Paris. The meeting was organized in order to finalize the draft Compendium in line with the request by the World Heritage Committee at its 42nd session in Manama, Bahrain. During the three-day working meeting, the Working Group, which ...

Under the high patronage of H.E. Abdulaziz bin Mohamed Al-Rowas, Advisor for Cultural Affairs to His Majesty the Sultan of Oman, some 30 experts gathered in Salalah, Oman, from 3 to 5 December 2018, to discuss the future of the World Heritage property “Cultural Landscape and Archaeological Remains of the Bamiyan Valley” and to enhance cooperation between relevant stakeholders. Financially ...

Nearly two-thirds of the ocean, half of the world's surface, lies beyond the jurisdiction of nations. While 49 marine sites are inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, all of them are currently limited to areas within nation’s territories. Following a pioneering UNESCO-IUCN report in 2016, experts concluded that these remote ocean areas do harbour globally unique areas that deserve ...

The UNESCO World Heritage Centre held a workshop on 26-27 November in Bhopal, India, with stakeholders of the new ‘World Heritage Journeys Buddha’ project. With the support of the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and in collaboration with National Geographic, the project focuses on three World Heritage sites in South Asia including Lumbini, the Birthplace of the Lord Buddha ...

In response to recent reports that Tanzania granted a contract for the construction of a dam within the Selous Game Reserve World Heritage property to two Egyptian companies, the Director of the World Heritage Centre reminded the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania of its obligations as signatory to the 1972 World Heritage Convention. Upon the inscription of Selous Game Reserve on ...

A new UNESCO project funded by the Government of The Netherlands is supporting Eritrea’s efforts to strengthen the conservation and management of Asmara: A Modernist African City World Heritage property using the UNESCO Historic Urban Landscape Approach. Eritrea’s capital city Asmara was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2017 as “an exceptional example of early modernist ...

From 17 to 29 November 2018, the Fourteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP 14) was held in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. The meeting was an important milestone for the international community to see where we are in achieving global goals—such as the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2010-2020 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable ...

The World Heritage Centre reaffirmed its commitment to the protection of natural heritage at the 18th Meeting of the Parties of the Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP) in Brussels, Belgium, which was held on 27 and 28 November 2018. Ms. Mechtild Rössler, Director of the World Heritage Centre, welcomed the progress made in its protection and highlighted the future challenges facing this ...

From 26 to 30 November 2018, a high-level delegation from Belize is visiting Australia’s Great Barrier Reef to exchange best practices on leveraging their reef’s iconic World Heritage status, to protect their fragile ecosystems from climate impacts and secure sustainable livelihoods, jobs and income for local communities. The visit follows a series of landmark conservation actions that led to ...

From 12-14 November 2018, World Heritage Focal Points of the Arab States region came together in Manama, Bahrain for a workshop on Periodic Reporting for the World Heritage Convention. The workshop was organised and hosted by the UNESCO Category 2 Centre ARC-WH in cooperation with the World Heritage Centre and was held within the framework of the Third Cycle of Periodic Reporting (PR), ...

The World Heritage Centre, in close collaboration with the UNESCO Multisectoral and Regional Office in Dakar and the African World Heritage Fund (AWHF), organized a workshop entitled "World Heritage and Institutions of Higher Learning in Africa" from 6 to 8 November 2018 at the University Gaston Berger de Saint-Louis (Senegal), with the support of the Senegalese Ministry of Culture and the ...

From 14 to 16 November 2018, World Heritage marine managers and marine litter experts from around the world met at the Island of Norderney in the Wadden Sea World Heritage site to discuss impacts of marine litter and plastics. During the 3-day workshop, best practices on marine litter monitoring, clean-up campaigns and awareness-raising were exchanged. Marine litter, including plastics, is ...

The UNESCO World Heritage Centre is pleased to announce the Call for Projects for the World Heritage Volunteers (WHV) Campaign 2019. This Call welcomes the participation of all interested organizations and institutions. “Empowering the Commitment to World Heritage” What is the WHV Initiative? The WHV Initiative was launched in 2008 to encourage young people to undertake concrete actions ...

The World Heritage Centre received today a visit from a delegation of representatives from the Arhuaco indigenous community of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, included on Colombia’s Tentative List since 2012 as a potential mixed World Heritage property. The representatives met with the Director and the team of the Latin American and Caribbean Unit of the World Heritage Centre to discuss ...

UNESCO launches the second phase of the World Heritage and Museums programme in cooperation with three prestigious World Heritage cities: George Town, Melaka (Malaysia) and Vigan (the Philippines) Thanks to the generous and renewed funding from the government of Japan through UNESCO, three historic towns will design and implement a variety of activities, which strengthen the ties between ...

“Nan Madol: Ceremonial Centre of Eastern Micronesia” is a jewel in the Pacific that has inspired many stories and myths. There are more than 100 islets at the site, constructed with walls of basalt and coral boulders, upon which were built structures with walls up to eight meters high of columnar basalt that glistens in the sun. These ruins represent the ceremonial center of the Saudeleur ...

Addis Ababa, 5 November 2018: The Director of UNESCO Liaison Office to AU and UN ECA, and Representative to Ethiopia, Ms Ana Elisa Santana Afonso met with a delegation of the Orthodox Tewahido Church of Lalibela, led by His Holiness Aba Tsige Selassie, Head Administrator of the Rock-Hewn Churches of Lalibela. Begun in the 12th century, this complex of 11 churches was among the first cultural ...

From 18 to 22 October 2018, the World Heritage Centre undertook a technical mission to the Barotse Cultural Landscape, a site on the Tentative List of Zambia. The mission met with the local communities to identify suitable development projects compatible with the safeguarding of the cultural landscape, and to seek the support of the traditional custodians to nominate the site on the World ...