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This year marks the 40th anniversary of the World Heritage Convention, one of UNESCO's most successful programmes and one of the most powerful tools for heritage preservation. Almost universally adopted, with 188 signatory countries, the Convention is unique in that it combines the protection of cultural and natural heritage in one instrument. Since its adoption by the General Conference of ...

On November 16, 1972, the international community took a historic step towards safeguarding core, irreplaceable elements of our global heritage when the General Conference of UNESCO adopted the World Heritage Convention. Since then, more than 188 countries have ratified the Convention, and more than 936 separate sites around the world have been designated as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. As ...

From 7 to 9 November 2011, experts from the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) undertook an advisory mission to examine development projects affecting the World Heritage site "Cathedral, Alcázar and Archivo de Indias in Sevilla", inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List in 1987. At its three last sessions, the World Heritage Committee discussed the state of ...

The Côte d’Ivoire component of the transboundary Mount Nimba Strict Nature Reserve, inscribed onto the list of World Heritage in Danger, has been awarded a Rapid Response Facility (RRF) small grant to help re-establish the presence of the protected area authority.  Recent civil strife in this country had led to the abandonment of site management offices in the area.  The ...

The UNESCO World Heritage Centre and Panasonic have released an online version of the 2012 World Heritage Calendar in five languages. It is available as a website, or as a downloadable stand-alone application or wallpaper. As the year 2012 is the 40th anniversary of the adoption of the World Heritage Convention, the calendar is expected to raise even more interest than the very popular 2011 ...