News

The World Heritage Committee meeting in Brasilia today inscribed the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (Tanzania) as a cultural property on the World Heritage List. The Committee made its decision because of the extraordinary record of human evolution at the site, which spans a vast area of land from the Serengeti National Park in the north-west of Tanzania to the eastern arm of the Great Rift ...

The World Heritage Committee meeting in Brasilia has inscribed sites in Saudi Arabia, Australia, India, Islamic Republic of Iran and, for the first time, a site in the Marshall Islands, as well as the Republic of Korea on the UNESCO World Heritage List.   The latest sites inscribed include (in order of inscription): At Turaif District in ad-Dir'iyah (Saudi Arabia) This property was the ...

Imperial Citadel of Thang Long-Hanoi (Viet Nam) becomes 900th site on UNESCO World Heritage List The World Heritage Committee meeting in Brasilia has inscribed new cultural sites in Viet Nam, China, Tajikistan, France, the Netherlands, on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The Committee also agreed to the extension of two cultural properties in Germany, Norway. The latest cultural sites ...

The World Heritage Committee, holding its 34th session chaired by João Luiz da Silva Ferreira, the Minister of Culture of Brazil, inscribed the Everglades National Park (United States) on the List of World Heritage in Danger,  because of serious and continuing degradation of  its aquatic ecosystem. The inscription was made at the request of the United States. It's the second ...

The World Heritage Committee holding its 34th session chaired by João Luiz da Silva Ferreira, the Minister of Culture of Brazil, has inscribed the Rainforests of the Atsinanana (Madagascar) on the List of World Heritage in Danger because of illegal logging and hunting of endangered lemurs on the site. The Committee noted that despite a decree outlawing the exploitation and export of ...

The World Heritage Committee holding its 34th session in Brasilia under the chairmanship of  João Luiz da Silva Ferreira, today inscribed two new sites on the World Heritage List. The new sites include 1 natural property and 1 mixed (natural and cultural) property. The natural site is: The Central Highlands of Sri Lanka Sri Lanka's highlands are situated in the south-central ...

The World Heritage Committee holding its 34th session chaired by João Luiz da Silva Ferreira, the Minister of Culture of Brazil, has inscribed the Tombs of Buganda Kings at Kasubi (Uganda) on the List of World Heritage in Danger. The Committee also decided to remove the Galapagos Islands (Ecuador) from this List. In March 2010, fire almost completely destroyed the Muzibu Azaala Mpanga ...

The World Heritage Committee, holding its 34th session chaired by João Luiz da Silva Ferreira, the Minister of Culture of Brazil, has inscribed the site of Bagrati Cathedral and Gelati Monastery (Georgia) on the List of World Heritage in Danger. The Committee expressed its serious concern about irreversible interventions carried out on the site as part of a major reconstruction ...

Thirty-nine nominations from 33 countries will be considered for inscription on UNESCO's World Heritage List during the meeting of the World Heritage Committee underway in Brasilia. Three of the countries - Marshall Islands, Kiribati and Tajikistan - have no properties inscribed on the World Heritage List to date. The Director-General of UNESCO Irina Bokova and Brazil's Minister of Culture ...

UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova and the Minister of Culture of Brazil, João Luiz da Silva Ferreira today signed an agreement establishing a regional heritage management training centre in Rio de Janeiro. The new centre will help Portuguese and Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia to implement the the World Heritage Convention. This is the sixth such ...

Within the framework of the Emergency International Request submitted by Haiti after the devastating 12 January 2010 earthquake, the World Heritage Centre - Latin America and the Caribbean Unit (WHC/LAC) organized a Technical Mission from 11-18 July 2010 in close cooperation with the Institut de Sauvegarde du Patrimoine National (ISPAN) and the UNESCO Haiti Office. The Mission's objectives ...

A new project for the conservation and management of Lumbini, the Birthplace of Lord Buddha, one of the UNESCO World Heritage properties in Nepal has been launched on 16 July 2010 in Kathmandu with the signing of the Plan of Operation by the Government of Nepal and UNESCO. The project will be coordinated by the UNESCO Kathmandu office in close collaboration with the World Heritage Centre and ...

The UNESCO World Heritage Centre and the Advisory Bodies to the World Heritage Committee, ICCROM, ICOMOS and IUCN are launching the first title within the World Heritage Resource Manuals series. It focuses on one specific approach to the principles, methodology and process for managing disaster risks at cultural and natural World Heritage properties. So far, this manual, which has been ...

The Operational Guidelines for the implementation of the World Heritage Convention are now available in Portuguese. The Operational Guidelines define specific criteria for the inscription of sites on the World Heritage List as well as for the provision of international assistance under the World Heritage Fund. They were revised in 2007 by the World Heritage Committee at its 31st Session in ...

The United Nations Development Programme has launched the new edition of "Picture this", an international photo contest. Through the photo contest this year, UNDP hopes to bring much needed attention to the quickly approaching deadline for achieving the Millennium Development Goals in order to motivate people and governments in developed and developing countries to redouble their ...

On 10 March 2010, the Government of Equatorial Guinea officially deposited with the Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, its instrument of ratification, becoming the 187th State Party to adopt the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. The World Heritage Convention entered into force for this State Party on 10 June ...

From 30 June to 4 July 2010, the International Academy for Nature Conservation, Isle of Vilm, Germany, hosted an expert workshop that set the basis for scaling-up Marine World Heritage. The workshop was jointly organized by the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN), the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the IUCN-World Commission on Protected Areas and ...

The World Heritage Committee will consider requests for the inscription of new sites on UNESCO’s World Heritage List when it meets for its 34th session in Brasilia (Brazil), from 25 July to 3 August. During this year’s session - to be chaired by João Luiz Ferreira, the Brazilian Minister of Culture and President of the World Heritage Committee - 35 States Parties to the ...

Comoé National Park in Côte d'Ivoire lies in a region particularly affected by the Ivorian civil war, which lasted for five years until 2007. A World Heritage site since 1983, it was added to the In Danger list in 2003. During the conflict, park management authorities in Comoé were effectively forced to abandon their operations, so there were few, if any, deterrents to ...