News

UNESCO condemns the intentional destruction of the Ahmed Al-Faz Mosque and Mausoleum in Hodeida, located on the coast approximately 30km from the World Heritage property of the Historic Town of Zabid. The General Organization of Antiquities and Museums (GOAM) in Yemen confirmed, in a statement published on 23 October, that the building was destroyed by extremists on the previous day. The ...

For the first time, UNESCO World Heritage coral reef managers will partner with global climate resilience experts and local community stakeholders to build and embed comprehensive resilience strategies into their management of World Heritage sites. The project builds on the capacity of reef managers to work locally and enables a global network of flagship protected area managers to create ...

The project “Communities and reinforcement of the management of the Royal Palaces of Abomey World Heritage Site” financed by the Netherlands Funds-in-Trust was implemented from July 2017 to August 2018, in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture of Benin, the African World Heritage Fund (AWHF) and the School of African Heritage (EPA). The project aimed to strengthen the state of ...

The results have been released concerning the development of management strategies for the Silk Road corridors in Central Asia after the sub-regional meeting of the working group on preparation of the dossier of the Serial transnational nomination of the World Heritage "Silk Road: Fergana-Syrdarya Corridor" held on 2 October 2018 and a sub-regional seminar on the development of management ...

The UNESCO World Heritage Centre was saddened to learn of the passing of David Lowenthal, the American historian and geographer whose revolutionary work contributed to heritage study being recognized as an academic discipline. He argued that heritage was not history, but rather what people choose from history to define themselves.    Born in the United States, he lived most of his life in ...

Every year, disasters caused by natural hazards affect millions of people around the world. The resultant human losses are tragic and highlight the vulnerabilities shared by our societies. Recent events have illustrated the devastating effects of natural disasters. The State of Kerala in India, for example, experienced in August the worst episode of flooding since 1924. Many hundreds of ...

From 9 to 12 October 2018, World Heritage managers from the Africa and Arab region met at Sanganeb Marine National Park and Dungonab Bay – Mukkawar Island Marine National Park in Sudan. The meeting focused on sharing expertise in balancing conservation of the site's unique natural values with the reduction of poverty among local communities that are directly dependent on the World Heritage ...

The first China/Germany Cultural Exchange on Heritage Conservation for Sustainable Development, organized at the initiative of UNESCO, took place on 26-30 September 2018 in Berlin, Germany, and gathered international experts and stakeholders for an international reflection session on the role of culture as a vector of sustainable development on the international stage, today and in the ...

Every year some 300,000 elephants are killed by poachers in Africa for their tusks, and approximately 41 tons of pangolin scales were seized in Africa (in 2017), that is the equivalent of over 34,000 animals. On Sunday, 30 September 2018, the Democratic Republic of Congo organized a ceremony, in the presidential park of N’sele, 50 km from the centre of Kinshasa, to set free five grey parrots ...