News

Online images of World Heritage sites, an outdoor exhibit and a new book project are among the most recent developments of the partnership between the UNESCO World Heritage Centre and Our Place, the World's Heritage Ltd, launched in July 2006. Our Place is the first collection of World Heritage photographs developed in partnership with the World Heritage Centre. It includes photos of more ...

Cultural Landscapes of the Pacific Islands: ICOMOS Thematic Study by Anita Smith and Kevin L. JonesThis is the first regional thematic study on Cultural Landscapes in the Pacific region. Published by ICOMOS (the International Council on Monuments and Sites), it is an overview of cultural landscapes in the Pacific Islands and the defining characteristics that account for their commonalities as ...

Works to begin the re-installation of the Aksum Obelisk, also known as Stele 2, in its original location will start June 4th at the World Heritage site in Aksum, Ethiopia. The three pieces of the stele, which stands 24.3 metres high and weighs 152 tons, will be reassembled and mounted before the end of July 2008, a year after the start of this exceptional project. The inauguration ceremony ...

A fire tore through the Bluecoat Art Gallery in Liverpool, United Kingdom early Tuesday morning, just two months after extensive renovation works. The building is the oldest in Liverpool and part of the Liverpool - Maritime Mercantile City World Heritage site, inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2004. The extent of the damage must still be assessed but seems to be concentrated in the ...

This publication marks the end of the Preservation of the Frozen Tombs of the Altai Mountains Project, which was launched in 2005 and carried out by the UNESCO World Heritage Centre with financial support from the UNESCO/Flemish Funds-in-Trust. The booklet sheds light on the historical, anthropological, archaeological and art-historical aspects of the Altai Mountains, the Russian part of ...

A Master Course in "World Heritage at Work" has been created by the Universita degli Studi di Torino (Italy) and the Politecnico di Torino in collaboration with the UNESCO World Heritage Centre. It is intended to contribute to improved management of World Heritage sites through preparing managers and site practitioners to be cultural entrepreneurs, creative agents of their local ...

Firefighters have been struggling since last weekend to prevent a fire from spreading into Garajonay National Park, situated in the middle of the island of La Gomera in the Canary Islands archipelago. The blaze, which may have been started accidentally by a farmer clearing his land, had already destroyed 700 hectares (1,750 acres) of farmland and woods. On Monday night the fire had reached ...

The sixth episode in the animated series Patrimonito's World Heritage Adventures is now available, and focuses on the plight of mountain gorillas and other threatened species in the Virunga Mountains of Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The mountain gorillas are a flagship species of Virunga National Park, a World Heritage site since 1979. Due to armed conflict and ...

The Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, today voiced concern about damage caused to the Castello di Moncalieri, in the Italian Province of Turin, inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List in 1997. A fire broke out on 5 April causing severe damage to the royal apartments and to several floors in one of the watchtowers of the building, a former residence of the House of Savoy. "I ...

Training World Heritage site managers is one of the most valuable investments in heritage conservation, particularly as these sites confront the challenges of increasing flows of tourism and diminishing flows of international assistance for conservation and management. This is why UNESCO's World Heritage Centre has joined forces - for the third year running - in an innovative ...

[in French only] Actualités sur l'avancement des projets CFU : Le Comité mixte (CMC) de la Convention FRANCE-UNESCO a eu lieu le 28 mars 2008 à l'UNESCO. Paris, France : L'oeuvre architecturale et urbaine de Le Corbusier. Conférence de presse. 30 janvier 2008. FOCUS ON « Niger-Loire : Gouvernance et Culture ». Projet européen. Paris, ...

The Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, today expressed his deep regret at the destruction of Québec’s ancient drill hall, a landmark adjacent to the Historic District of Old Québec, which was inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 1985. “I deeply regret the destruction of this important landmark,” said the Director-General. “It is particularly sad that this proud testimony ...

On 23 February 2008, 40 representatives of 26 Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) from Italy, Germany; Ireland, Spain, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands met to launch the CIVILSCAPE network. This network of NGOs has been founded to facilitate and encourage people to connect to their landscape and feel responsibility for it. CIVILSCAPE's objective is to support the Florence ...

Visitors to Sukhothai, Si Satchanalai and Kamphaeng Phet will now be able to click onto a new website to get information about historic monuments, nearby attractions and visitor facilities at this World Heritage site. The official launch took place on 27 March 2008 from 9-10 am at the 5th floor conference room of the UNESCO Bangkok office on Sukhumvit Road chaired by the Inspector General ...

As part of the ‘Initiative for World Heritage Forests in Central Africa' , UNESCO's World Heritage Centre organized an expert workshop on March 13-14 in Brazzaville (Congo) to identify the most outstanding protected areas in the Congo Basin and to study their complementarity with sites in the region already inscribed on the World Heritage List. The workshop was inaugurated by a speech ...

The Ecuadorian National Environmental Fund's "Galápagos Invasive Species" account received a major injection of US$2.19 million on March 18 under the framework of the UNESCO-World Heritage Centre/United Nations Foundation project for the management of invasive species at this globally recognized World Heritage site. The Fund, which was established in 2007 with support from the ...

The World Heritage Centre has concluded this year's map outreach campaign with its mailing of the 2007/2008 World Heritage Wall Map featuring 851 World Heritage sites produced in collaboration with National Geographic and Hewlett Packard. We had an overwhelming response for maps - attaining our target of 9000 requests within just nine weeks - and would like to thank everyone who took time ...

[in French only] Les 10 et 11 mars 2008 la troisième session du Comité de pilotage annuel de l'initiative pour le Patrimoine Mondial Forestier d'Afrique Centrale (CAWHFI) s'est tenue à Brazzaville, sous la Présidence de la Commission des Forêts d'Afrique centrale (COMIFAC). Cette initiative vise à renforcer la gestion durable de trois complexes ...

WHTour.org, a non profit organization sponsored by the J.M. Kaplan Fund, announces that 80 World Heritage sites shot in the Middle East and East Africa are now available in 360° panographic format at its website. Currently panographies from Israel are being explored by thousands of visitors daily. In the coming weeks photos in this unique format will be uploaded from Jordan, Syria, ...

The international mission of experts sent to review plans to build a bridge in the cultural landscape of the Dresden Elbe Valley (Germany) in early February is recommending that the plan be abandoned in the interest of preserving the outstanding universal value that warranted the inscription of the site on UNESCO's World Heritage list in 2004.For more information please see: UNESCO press ...