UNESCO offers its sincere solidarity with the people of Japan, and in particular the residents of Okinawa, who have lost a cultural and historical symbol of the Ryukyu islands. UNESCO stands ready to assist the authorities as needed. In the early morning hours of 31 October, a number of buildings, including Shuri Castle of  the World Heritage site of “Gusuku Sites and Related Properties of ...

The World Heritage Cities Programme supports countries in protecting and managing their urban heritage through theoretical application and technical advice. More than 315 World Heritage cities function as inhabited urban centres worldwide facing the challenges of balancing heritage conservation with contemporary urban development.'Changing the World: Innovations and Better Life for Future ...

UNESCO and Expedia Group have signed a global agreement to promote sustainable tourism and heritage conservation through an industry-first Sustainable Tourism Pledge whose pilot phase will be launched in Thailand this year before going global. It is the first collaboration between UNESCO and a global online travel agency. The Sustainable Tourism Pledge requires tourism industry members to ...

Recent flooding threatens the World Heritage property of the Historic Town of Grand-Bassam, Côte d'Ivoire. UNESCO is sending a mission to provide technical assistance to national and local authorities in assessing the damage and collecting all the data necessary for the preparation of a risk management plan that better takes account of the flood issue. On the weekend of 11 to 13 October, ...

The Deputy-Director of the World Heritage Centre, Jyoti Hosagrahar, represented UNESCO at the First meeting of the European Commission Expert Group on Cultural Heritage in Brussels. The event was organized by the European Commission and took place on 15-16 October 2019. The European Commission Expert Group on cultural heritage was set up with the aim of continuing the spirit of cooperation ...

Some 40 female members of the armed forces of Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan, as well as female peacekeepers from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) came together in Beirut, Lebanon to discuss the protection of cultural property in the event of armed conflict. The workshop, which took place on 1-3 October 2019, was the first UNESCO-organized event specifically focused on female ...

The first guide for the insurance industry to protect our world’s priceless and irreplaceable assets was launched today at a major event by UN Environment’s Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) in São Paulo, Brazil, convening leading insurers, investors and banks. The pioneering guide, Protecting our World Heritage, insuring a sustainable future, builds on last year’s launch of the first insurance ...

Representatives from the city of Venice, the Italian government, UNESCO and ICOMOS came together at UNESCO Headquarters on 2 October 2019 to discuss the ongoing challenges facing Venice and its surrounding lagoon – an iconic site whose status as a World Heritage property is in jeopardy.  Inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1987, Venice is threatened on several fronts – from overtourism, ...

This year’s World Migratory Bird Day is dedicated to highlighting the problem of pollution with the theme, ‘Protect Birds: Be the Solution to Plastic Pollution.’ Waste and pollution are harmful to many World Heritage sites. Increased tourism means that more people are leaving trash at the world’s most iconic places. World Heritage sites are key stopover sites for birds, so the effective ...

International Day for Disaster Reduction promotes a global culture of risk awareness and disaster reduction by celebrating how people around the world are reducing their exposure to disasters. This year’s theme is based on one Target of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030: ‘Substantially reduce disaster damage to critical infrastructure and disruption of services ...

The Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority (EWCA) in collaboration with UNESCO Addis Ababa Liaison Office and the UNESCO Regional Office for Eastern Africa organized a four-day technical workshop to strengthen national capacities in preparing World Heritage nomination dossiers for natural heritage sites, which ran from 23 to 27 September 2019 in Gondar Town, Amhara Region, ...