News

The UNESCO World Heritage Centre and Panasonic Corporation have released the 2015 World Heritage calendar. Featuring stunning photographs of World Heritage sites from around the world, this popular calendar can be used in paper, online and tablet app versions. UNESCO and Panasonic have been creating wall calendars since 1995 and a web version since 2010. The wall calendar includes brief ...

The First World Conference on Tourism and Culture will bring together, for the first time, Ministers of Tourism and Ministers of Culture from around the world, experts and stakeholders from both sectors to explore new models of partnership between tourism and culture (Siem Reap, Cambodia, 4-6 February 2015). Cultural tourism can contribute to inclusive economic growth, social development ...

The Panasonic Corporation in cooperation with UNESCO Office Jakarta organised a launching ceremony of LED Lighting Installment in Prambanan Temple Compounds on 17 December 2014. The ceremony was attended by more than 100 participants representing different stakeholders including the National and Local Government, UNESCO Jakarta and Headquarters, local communities, craftsmen, NGOs, as well as ...

An oil spill occurred in The Sundarbans, Bangladesh on Tuesday, 9 December when a small coastal oil tanker sank after being rammed by another vessel from behind, releasing approximately 400,000 liters of oil in the water. The Sundarbans was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1997 and is one of the largest mangrove forests in the world. It lies on the delta of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and ...

As part of the "World Heritage Eco Learning Program", Panasonic hosted, on 15 December 2015, the "Environmental activity for the next generation” at Budapest World Heritage site.  Panasonic hosted 150 pupils in an extraordinary school excursion on Monday, 15 December 2014. Children between the ages of 8 and 12, and 20 teachers accompanying them, had the opportunity to view the UNESCO ...

A presentation of the “Fragile Venice” study, which touches on some of the most serious future challenges faced by the city of Venice and its Lagoon, will take place today, 12 December (2.30 pm.), in Venice, at the sala del Piovego in the Doge’s Palace. As the city’s urban fabric undergoes deep structural changes, this is the first enquiry of its kind into the wider effects of tourism and ...

Twenty-two conservation architects, engineers, archaeologists, and experts from different regions across Syria, including Damascus, Maaloula, Daraa, Homs and Aleppo, concluded today a three-week training course that aims to enhance their technical skills and introduce them to the recent conservation trends in order for them to secure their endangered built cultural heritage and take the ...

UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova today called for the creation of “protected cultural zones” around heritage sites in Syria and Iraq. Opening an international conference on threats to cultural heritage and diversity in these countries at UNESCO Headquarters, she suggested a start could be made with the city of Aleppo, and especially the Omeyyad Mosque, a highly iconic site located in the ...

On the occasion of the Mediterranean Week of Economic Leaders and in the framework of the XXIII General Assembly of the Association of the Mediterranean Chambers of Commerce and Industry (ASCAME) held on 26 November 2014, UNESCO received an award for promoting Mediterranean cultural heritage in the world and for its efforts to promote the tangible and intangible cultural heritage as a ...

In 2011, the French Ministry of Culture and Communication (Directorate General of Cultural Heritage – Department of European and International Affairs) launched « e-patrimoines »: a new e-learning training program on tangible and intangible heritage, for nearly a hundred francophone countries. This project was undertaken in partnership with the Agence universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF) ...

Recent policy and conceptual developments in World Heritage, and in conservation generally, set the stage for new approaches that engage indigenous and local communities in World Heritage. The inclusion of communities as one of the five Strategic Objectives in the World Heritage Convention reflects an increasing demand for community engagement at all stages of the World Heritage process, and ...

The World Heritage Centre expresses its condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Professor Karel Bakker from the Department of Architecture, University of Pretoria (South Africa), and a long-time collaborator on World Heritage, who passed away on 19 November 2014. Prof. Bakker contributed to numerous World Heritage missions, Heritage Impact Assessments, training workshops, ...

The General Assembly of the States Parties to the World Heritage Convention met for its 1st extraordinary session on 13-14 November 2014 at UNESCO Headquarters under the Chairpersonship of Ms Vera Lacoeuilhe, Permanent Delegate of Saint-Lucia to UNESCO, with the mandate of examining the proposals made by the Open-ended Working Group to revise the Rules of Procedure in order to achieve the ...

The Convention on Wetlands, also known as the “Ramsar Convention” from the name of the city in Iran where it was signed in 1971, is an intergovernmental treaty which provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and sustainable use of wetland biodiversity and services. It was the first of the modern global multilateral environmental agreements ...

Amidst alarming reports of increase in acts of vandalism, illicit trafficking and attacks on Libyan cultural heritage, UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova called on all parties to protect Libya’s unique cultural heritage. Her call came in the context of the deterioration of the security situation in Libya and in support of efforts towards an inclusive political dialogue to put an end to the ...

Compliance management in the Great Barrier Reef has matured over more than 30 years and is currently one of the most advanced worldwide. Still today, over 30% of all marine World Heritage sites are suffering serious pressure from fishing activities, most of which is illegal and unreported. Monitoring and evaluation of these sites is often costly and the need for a clever intelligence system ...

Conserving Cultural Landscapes: Challenges and New Directions is now available from Routledge publishers. The book is edited by Ken Taylor, Australian National University, Australia; Archer St. Clair, Rutgers University, USA; and Nora J. Mitchell, University of Vermont, USAIt is published as part of the series Routledge Studies in Heritage. Challenging traditional notions of historic ...

Patrimonito takes a stand in a changing global environment The World Heritage Centre (WHC) is pleased to announce the Call for Proposals for the World Heritage Volunteers (WHV) Campaign 2015. In the framework of the UNESCO World Heritage Education Programme, the WHC leads the Initiative in collaboration with the Coordinating Committee for International Voluntary Service (CCIVS), Open Houses ...

November 15, 2014, marks the official announcement of the design competition to build the new Bamiyan Cultural Centre in Afghanistan. UNESCO, together with the Government of Afghanistan, decided to select the design of the Cultural Centre through an open international competition. The competition will generate interest in the project and ensure that the winning design is both iconic and also ...

UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova visited Australia’s Great Barrier Reef on the weekend of 15-16 November for a firsthand look at the way the World Heritage site is being managed. Her visit came amidst widespread concerns over the health of the reef, which experts say is threatened by climate change, pollution and other environmental issues that make careful, long-term planning absolutely ...