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Goias: a Jewel on Brazil's Rio Vermelho Mount Kenya National Park Kasbah of Algiers: a Demanding Restoration Rhodes: the City of Knights

This quarterly magazine in English, French and Spanish features in-depth articles on World Heritage sites around the world and superb photographs, as well as the latest news in preservation. Table of Contents In Focus New World Heritage Sites Transnational Sites: Heritage Across Borders World Heritage Cultural Landscapes Interview with George Okello Abungu, World ...

Table of contents Scenic natural beauty How can it be judged The sites inscribed under criterion vii, known commonly as having the “wow” effect, are more than just stunning landscapes, and we take a close look at their unique qualities and conservation challenges. Stories behind superlative scenery The concept of aesthetics is no easier to deal with, being additionally ...

Borobudur, The Glory of Buddhist Art Baku, City on the Silk Road Robben Island, a Monument to Courage Redwood park, Mother Nature's Cathedral

We are happy to publish this special issue dedicated to the World Heritage sites of the Russian Federation on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the World Heritage Convention, which the Committee will be celebrating at its meeting in Saint Petersburg on 25 June 2012. The inscription of both cultural and natural sites on the World Heritage List has progressed rapidly ...

The World Heritage Convention arose from the need to identify and protect outstanding natural and cultural sites for future generations. Over time, the effectiveness of the Convention has led to an increasing number of sites inscribed on the World Heritage List, resulting in not only a List including a great variety and number of places around the world, but an awareness ...

The 37th session of the World Heritage Committee will be held from 16 to 27 June 2013 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. This issue explores in the depth the sites of Angkor, one of the most important archaeological sites in South-East Asia, and the Temple of Preah Vihear, dedicated to Lord Shiva and dating back to the first half of the 11th century AD. Discover also the Royal ...

The IUCN World Parks Congress meets every ten years, and its November 2014 meeting may prove to be a turning point for protected areas in offering and implementing solutions for the challenges faced by the planet.  Taken together, the national parks, reserves and designated protected areas of every kind (including the World Heritage natural and mixed natural/cultural ...

A number of World Heritage routes have played a significant part in the history of the five continents – and the way we focus on them in this issue illustrates how far our thinking has evolved in the thirty-five years since the World Heritage Convention was drafted and adopted. The initial idea was the logical outgrowth of the need to protect significant monuments ...

At some time during the past one hundred years or so, the great, multimillennial tradition of earthen architecture, which even today is a dominant technique in every world civilization, fell victim to the Modern Ideal. Being ‘modern’, some thought, meant eating, clothing and housing oneself as one did in the industrial world. If some lived and worked in ...

Spain, with its long, complex history and the global character of its territorial and cultural extension, remains marked by a striking diversity of historical influences and regional differences, and it justifiably prides itself on the forty Spanish sites currently inscribed on the World Heritage List. Together, they represent a broad range of categories: religious, ...

Historic urban walls were once used for division and protection, and remain a legacy of the complex relations between people and their environment. Today, they represent a fascinating aspect of cultural heritage management. They attract visitors and can be considered part of the attempt to balance sustainable social and economic development and the conservation of ...

Each issue of the World Heritage magazine goes beyond a visual account of cultural and natural sites: it invites readers to understand their significance and their uniqueness and to take action for their long-term protection. Through its articles, images and testimonies, the magazine embodies UNESCO’s commitment to making World Heritage a lever for resilience, ...

While conflicts continue to inflict damage – much of it intentional – on heritage sites, reconstruction becomes a critical topic for discussion. The recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction of damaged sites are complex. They involve questions that go beyond authenticity and integrity. As the architect Jad Tabet says in his introductory article to this issue of World ...

The issues of World Heritage published during 2012 have largely been devoted to commemorating the adoption of the World Heritage Convention forty years ago, in 1972. This has not been a self-congratulatory exercise but rather an analytical survey, which offers some fascinating insights into the unique contribution that the Convention has made and is still making to global ...

The greater part of this issue is devoted to the reinstallation of the great stele of Aksum in Ethiopia, an exploit that ranks alongside such major UNESCO achievements as the safeguarding and restoration of the temples of Abu Simbel and Borobudur. The stele, removed from Aksum in 1937 after Mussolini’s army had marched into Ethiopia, was assembled and raised in Rome. ...

Cultural World Heritage sites are representative of the creativity and genius of humanity. While World Heritage belongs to everyone, and we share the responsibility to protect it, each site embodies the history, values, beliefs and skills of the people who created it. Whenever a cultural site is destroyed, it is a particularly devastating loss for those who hold the site ...

Cities are among the most quickly evolving environments on the planet. Over half of the world’s population lives in cities today, and knowing how to manage these urban areas as they grow, so that we can both cherish our history and yet help them to flourish socially, culturally and economically while they meet our needs, is a complex and monumental task. We examine these ...

The 14 World Heritage sites of Canada presented in this issue offer a fascinating pattern. Indeed, they reflect key aspects of the evolution of the very concept of World Heritage over the past 32 years. The sites predictably include historic cities like Old Québec and Lunenburg, great natural sites like Nahanni National Park, Wood Buffalo National Park, the Canadian ...

Initially protected by the broadest expanses of virtually impenetrable tropical rainforest on Earth, Brazil still takes prides in a stunning variety of species found nowhere else. With giant snakes such as the anaconda, minuscule hummingbirds, iridescent blue butterflies, voracious piranhas, the fauna of Brazil seems to haunt the imagination of humanity quite as much as it ...

Modern heritage – the architecture, town planning and landscape design of the modern era, or the last two hundred years or so – is still underrepresented on the World Heritage List. And yet it is an integral part of many urban ensembles, which represent a majority of sites on the List. Raising awareness of the significance of this heritage, and addressing issues on its ...

Wetlands are an essential, but often overlooked, aspect of our natural environment. They are vital sources of biodiversity and take many different forms – from lakes, rivers and swamps, to deltas and tidal flats, mangroves and coral reefs. Wetlands are found nearly everywhere, are essential to the survival of countless species of plants and animals, and are therefore ...

The illicit trafficking of cultural objects depletes cultures of their identity and contributes to lucrative unlawful trade, which helps to finance terrorism and organized crime. It is a problem that has been growing surreptitiously across the globe. As just one example, since 2011, approximately 25 per cent of Syria’s archaeological sites have been pillaged. Objects from ...

The World Heritage Convention is a legal tool. In adhering to it, countries commit to protect heritage within their borders and to refrain from any deliberate measures that might damage directly or indirectly the cultural and natural heritage of the territory of other States Parties to this Convention. The true measure of the Convention is the effectiveness of its ...

From 1 to 10 September 2016, thousands of leaders and decision-makers from government, civil society, indigenous peoples, business and academia will gather together in Honolulu (Hawaii) to share ideas on how to improve the ways we manage the natural environment for human, social and economic development. Held every four years, the IUCN World Conservation Congress (WCC) ...