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Table of Contents In Focus World Heritage: cooperation, communication and capacity buildingThe inscription of a site can result in specific preservation challenges, making skilled and sustainable management practices crucial to protect its Outstanding Universal Value. Jiuzhaigou ValleyFrom isolation to ‘smart park’Jiuzhaigou Valley has completed the perfect transition from ...

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 ...

What are the benefits of World Heritage List inscription When it brings higher visibility and increased tourism to a site, how can the site still be protected Issue 58 of our quarterly magazine explores these questions with a lead article by Jonathan B. Tourtellot, National Geographic Fellow, Geotourism Editor at National Geographic Traveler and World Heritage advocate. ...

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, ...

The 40th session of the World Heritage Committee is taking place in Istanbul from 10 to 20 July 2016, and we are extremely grateful to Turkey for generously hosting this session. Turkey is a country at the crossroads between Europe and Asia, with a diverse heritage of civilizations that have been a cultural and historical influence worldwide. It is home to fifteen World ...

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) ...

I am particularly pleased that the 43rd session of the World Heritage Committee will be held in Baku, Azerbaijan. We are very grateful to our generous hosts for organizing this session in a World Heritage city. Baku has always been at the crossroads of cultures. Situated along the western shore of the Caspian Sea, it is part of ancient trade routes from the Central Asian ...

Special issue on World Heritage sites in New Zealand, at the occasion of the 31st session of the World Heritage Committee held from 23 June to 2 July in Christchurch, New Zealand. Special Issue Message from UNESCO Director-General Mr Koichiro Matsuura (p.4) An Interview with Mr Tumu te Heuheu, Paramount Chief of the Ngati Tuwharetoa Māori Tribe and Chair of the 31st ...

This edition of World Heritage is devoted to the enduring relationship between a number of World Heritage sites and the indigenous peoples that inhabit them. For historical, cultural and practical reasons this is a complex and sensitive matter, but the very fact that it has become a focus of attention holds great promise for the future. Forty years ago, framers of the ...

This year, for its 42nd session, the World Heritage Committee is hosted by Bahrain in its capital city of Manama. Bahrain has long dedicated its support to the World Heritage Convention, and already chaired the Committee for its 35th session in 2011, at UNESCO Headquarters. Bahrain is also home to the Arab Regional Centre for World Heritage, a Category 2 Centre working ...

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 ...

Table of Contents In Focus Revising the approach to urban conservation The capacity of historic cities to accommodate and benefit from the radical and rapid changes that accompany urban growth while maintaining heritage values is becoming a critical issue. Towards social inclusion in urban settings More than half of the Earth’s population now lives in urban areas ...

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 ...

In this issue we are pleased to focus on the heritage of Africa and its sustainable development. The diversity and wealth of African heritage is extraordinary, from its large-scale ecosystems to modern architecture; from the memory of slavery and colonial heritage to cultural landscapes and sacred sites. Preserving this heritage is an ambitious and challenging task. Once ...

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 ...

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 ...

Table of contents In focus Fostering resilience: Towards reducing disaster risks to World Heritage, p. 4World Heritage sites are exposed to a wide variety of natural and human-induced hazards, such as earthquakes, cyclones or fires, which can have devastating effects on their value as well as on the lives and assets of the communities concerned. Post-disaster ...

Observing heritage sites from space for the sake of preservation has a long history. In the early 1920s, scientists were already using aerial photographs to map archaeological sites and to help detect changes not visible from the ground, such as buried roads and other remains. In 1972, the World Heritage Convention was adopted by UNESCO’s General Conference, and that same ...

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 ...

We are pleased to bring you this issue on biodiversity and World Heritage sites, focusing on some of the properties most vital to the future of our planet. These articles were prepared in anticipation of the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP 15) originally planned for October 2020 in Kunming, China, and the designation of a “biodiversity super year”. Many far-reaching ...