News

The Atlas by Collins app can be downloaded for free on Tuesday, October 29th. The app comes with one globe pre-installed and includes 10 other globes that can be downloaded.  The free download is available to celebrate the launch of the World Heritage globe. With the World Heritage globe: Discover the locations of all 981 UNESCO World Heritage sites. Learn about the criteria for ...

UNESCO on 14 October delivered a first training course in cultural heritage protection to military, police and civilian staff from Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, France, Romania, Rwanda, Togo and the United Kingdom, who are part of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA). The session comes in the wake of United Nations Security Council Resolution ...

Managers from 46 marine World Heritage sites will meet in Ajaccio, Corsica, from October 18-20, for the second World Heritage Marine Site Managers’ conference. The World Heritage Convention was founded in 1972 on the premise that certain places on our planet – cultural or natural -- should be recognized as having “outstanding universal value” and should be safeguarded ...

The Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, deplored the suicide attack that took place on 28 September, near the Djingareyber Mosque in Timbuktu, Mali, inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. "I wish to express my solidarity with the people of Mali, the families and especially the community of Timbuktu, for the suicide bombing that brings back such terror and violence by injuring ...

On Wednesday, 25 September, UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova joined the President of the International Council of Museums (ICOM), Dr. Hans-Martin Hinz, and United States Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration, Ms Anne Richard, to launch an Emergency Red List of Syrian Cultural Objects at Risk. The event was held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York ...

A joint publication of UNESCO and the Paris-based NGO Oriental Cultural Heritage Sites Protection Alliance, Lumbini, Birthplace of Buddha is a novel approach at encapsulating this site’s timeless essence.  Eight photographers – three Nepali and five from around the world – used their unique vision to capture the Sacred Garden experience and, in the tradition of ...

The results of the 3rd and 4th HERITY Conferences, held in Rome, Italy in December 2010 and 2012, are now available. The conferences and their conclusions were made possible thanks to contributions from UNESCO-WHC, UN-WTO, ICCROM and HERITY International. For more information on HERITY, the different conferences and their results, please visit: ...

The Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, today called on all parties involved in the conflict in Syria to safeguard the country’s cultural heritage and take all possible measures to avoid further destruction. The Director-General’s appeal followed a meeting of experts held at the Organization’s Headquarters today to examine  an action plan aimed at preventing ...

The World Heritage Centre has learnt with deep sadness of the recent passing away of Professor Walter Santagata, a long-time collaborator of UNESCO and the creator, among many other scientific programmes, of the Turin Category 2 centre for training and research on the economics of World Heritage (ITRECH, 2011). The establishment of this institution, aimed at exploring the economic dimension ...

Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site on Tuesday welcomed its 10 millionth visitor since achieving the rare distinction of being designated a World Heritage site. Visitor N° 10,000,000 was Michelle Miller of Waterloo, Ill. She was accompanied by her mother, Lorraine Novak; daughter Gabrielle Miller; and her daughter’s friend Keira Schmitz. Miller received a personal tour of the site ...

On 10 November 2011 UNESCO’s General Conference adopted the Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape, six years after the General Assembly of States Parties to the World Heritage Convention adopted Resolution 15GA/7 (in October 2005) that called for the elaboration of a new international standard-setting instrument that would be based on the recognition and guidance of investment in and ...

The Val de Loire World Heritage cultural landscape (France) is organizing a one-day workshop on Economy, Heritage and Landscape, to be held 12th  December 2013 in Tours. The workshop will focus mainly on policies and politics, and assessing the economic, environmental and cultural current and future returns on investments in the economic, landscape and heritage spheres. Discussions ...

New report on lessons learned to engage local communities in the Conservation of World Heritage sites launched during the 37th session of the World Heritage Committee The role of local communities in ensuring that World Heritage contributes to sustainable development was chosen by the World Heritage Committee as the central theme for the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Convention ...

The Africa Nature risk preparedness workshop took place from the 20th-25th May 2013 at the Golden Gate Highlands National Park. Organized by African World Heritage Fund with the support of the Government of South Africa, this workshop aimed at English-speaking African countries. It gathered 14 site managers from natural World Heritage Sites in Ethiopia, Kenya, Seychelles, Tanzania, Uganda, ...

Given the current rate of poaching, children from West or Central Africa will one day speak of elephants and rhinoceros as we speak of mammoths: as magnificent creatures belonging to the past. Over recent years, the massacre of wild species has reached an industrial scale, in particular the poaching of animals for their ivory. In Gabon alone, some 11,000 elephants have been killed illegally ...

For the first time, the Lagoons of New Caledonia: Reef Diversity and Associated Ecosystems brought together all the local communities actively involved in the management of this exceptional marine World Heritage site from 5 to 6 July. The local management committees are unique in their endeavor to include the local population in the management of the lagoons in a very comprehensive ...

H.E. Gürcan Balik, Ambassador and Permanent Delegate of Turkey to UNESCO, and Kishore Rao, Director of UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre, on 17 July signed a Plan of Operations for a $1.2 million project to safeguard the Turkish World Heritage site of Göreme National Park and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia. H. E. Mr Isao Kiso, Ambassador and Permanent Delegate of Japan was also ...

The Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, has expressed deep shock at news of further destruction to cultural heritage in Syria, and particularly following the publication of media reports and images depicting damage to the Crac des Chevaliers, one of Syria’s World Heritage sites. These two castles are outstanding examples of the region’s fortified architecture developed ...

The French Grand Sites Network and its International Training and Exchange Centre for Francophone Heritage Sites Managers organized recently an “Exchange Workshop on management and valorization of paleo-metallurgical sites”. From the 20th to the 24th of May 2013, this workshop gathered sixteen managers of patrimonial sites and paleo-metallurgical experts of Western Africa and ...

On 6th May 2013, the creation of a “Rivers and heritage” UNESCO Chair was approved by UNESCO. This project stems from a partnership between the University François Rabelais in Tours (France), the University of Angers (France) and the Mission Val de Loire which is the management body of the Val de Loire site World Heritage site. The creation of a UNESCO chair is part of the ...