News

Pingyao city of north China's Shanxi Province signed an accord of friendship ties with Provins of France, as part of the on-going concluding ceremony of the French Culture Year, at the Great Hall of the People Thursday.This is the first time the two cities, both listed as cultural heritages by the United Nations Education, Science and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), signed an agreement to ...

BiodiversityLife Insurance for our Changing WorldThis week, in New York, leaders of the world will review progress made towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). These goals embody the international community's aspirations for a better world, where hunger and poverty are eradicated, all people enjoy basic rights, and equity and health prevail in all countries. We call upon ...

Everglades National Park in Florida, USA, has almost entirely reopened to the public following damage from Hurricane Katrina, which passed directly over the Park bringing heavy wind and rain.Most of the park remained closed in the days following the hurricane due to damage to the visitor complex at Flamingo, 40 miles (64 km) southwest of Park Headquarters. Employee housing, the sewer system, ...

The historical village of Maymand in southern Iran will be awarded the Melina Mercouri International Prize for the Safeguarding and Management of Cultural Landscapes (UNESCO Greece) in a ceremony at UNESCO Headquarters on September 7.

Durban (South Africa) – The World Heritage Committee, chaired by Themba Wakashe, South Africa’s Deputy Director-General for Heritage and National Archives, today inscribed 17 cultural sites on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. The World Heritage List now numbers 812 sites in total, which includes: 628 cultural; 160 natural and 24 mixed sites in 137 States Parties. With ...

Durban (South Africa), The World Heritage Committee chaired by Themba Wakashe, South Africa’s Deputy Director-General for Heritage and National Archives, today inscribed seven natural sites on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. The Committee also made decisions concerning two natural sites already on the List. The one is extended in size while the inscription of the other under cultural criteria ...

Improvements in the preservation of three threatened World Heritage sites have led to their withdrawal from the List of World Heritage in Danger. The World Heritage Committee decided to remove the sites of Sangay (Ecuador), Timbuktu (Mali) and Butrint (Albania) during its 29th session currently taking place in Durban, South Africa (July 10 to 17). The Committee is chaired by Themba Wakashe, ...

Forty-two new sites will be proposed for inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List during the 29th session of the World Heritage Committee scheduled for July 10-17 at the International Convention Centre (ICC) in Durban, South Africa. Extensions will be proposed for nine already inscribed sites. UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura will address the opening session, which is open ...

The results of the latest geological and geophysical surveys conducted at the site of the Peking Man in Zhoukoudian (China) will be presented at the Espace EDF Electra, 6 rue Récamier, 75007 Paris, on Tuesday July 5 (11 a.m.) during a joint UNESCO/EDF scientific conference. The symposium will bring together Yves Coppens, Professor at the Collège de France, Yves Bamberger, Research and ...

Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura awarded diplomas and medals to colleagues who had completed 25 and 30 years of service to UNESCO at a June 14 ceremony at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France. 29 individuals joined UNESCO or the UN in 1975, including Mrs Marielle Richon and Mrs Silvia Simmonds of the World Heritage Centre.62 individuals joined UNESCO or the UN in 1980, including Mrs ...

The Symposium, an activity of the World EXPO 2005 in Aïchi, Japan has opened today at the United Nations University, Tokyo, and will continue until 2 June. It aims to highlight the interrelationship between the natural and cultural diversity of our planet. Bringing culture and nature closer together in a comprehensive approach, the symposium will present case studies on sacred natural sites ...

Growing understanding that the outstanding universal value of urban heritage goes well beyond the value of the individual buildings it contains, has created a pressing need for internationally accepted guidelines and criteria for the preservation of historic city centres. Conservationists, municipalities, architects and developers will address the issue at the Conference on World Heritage ...

Major archaeological vestiges have been discovered at the World Heritage site of Aksum (Ethiopia) by the experts UNESCO sent to Aksum (Ethiopia) to survey the World Heritage Site last week. They were sent to prepare for the elevation of the Aksum Obelisk at its original location. The last segment of the 160-tonne 24.6-metre high stele arrived at the airport of Aksum this morning. It had been ...

The government of Montenegro, Serbia and Montenegro, has cancelled a project to build a dam that would flood part of the Tara River Canyon in the buffering UNESCO Biosphere Reserve next to Durmitor National Park, a World Heritage site inscribed in 1980. The decision comes as the result of meetings that UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura had with the Presidents of Serbia and Montenegro ...

The first of three parts of the Aksum obelisk arrived in Ethiopia by airplane on April 19. The two other pieces of the obelisk, which has been in Rome since 1937, will be sent to Aksum (a World Heritage site) in the following days. Following a mission of UNESCO experts who conducted a field evaluation, UNESCO is to draw up the project for the installation of the obelisk and the enhancement ...

China has signed an agreement to join UNESCO in the Open Initiative on the Use of Space Technology in Support of the World Heritage Convention. The signing - by Guo Huadong, Deputy Secretary-General of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Director of its Joint Laboratory for Remote Sensing Archaeology, and Marcio Barbosa, Deputy Director-General of UNESCO – took place at Organization ...

The President of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya, the Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura and the World Bank's Vice President for Europe, Jean-François Rischard, will open a conference and an exhibition at UNESCO Headquarters celebrating the cultural heritage of Mauritania and its ancient cities of Ouadane, Chinguetti, Tichitt and Oualata, on April 11 ...

Accurate and detailed maps of inaccessible zones in Central Africa that will allow authorities to monitor the habitat of the region's threatened mountain gorillas, have been produced for the first time by the European Space Agency (ESA) and UNESCO. The results of this joint project, known as BEGo (Build Environment for Gorillas), will be presented at a meeting on April 7 at ESA headquarters ...

On 16 February 2005, the Government of Trinidad and Tobago officially deposited with the Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, its instrument of ratification, becoming the 180th State Party to adopt the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. The World Heritage Convention will enter into force for this State Party on 16 May ...

The State of World Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (2003) is now available as publication number 12 in the World Heritage Paper Series. This publication is composed of: a paper version, providing an overview of the results of this first cycle of Periodic Reporting for the Asia-Pacific Region; and a CD-Rom which includes a synthesis of country and site-specific Periodic Reports of the ...