The International assistance scheme under the World Heritage Fund deals with the protection of cultural sites (monuments, groups of buildings, historic cities, archaeological sites) and natural sites inscribed on the World Heritage List. Priority is given to the most threatened properties, especially those inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger.
Sites inscribed on national Tentative Lists may also receive assistance, but only for the preparation of a nomination file.
N.B. Projects related to oral traditions; performing arts; social practices, rituals and festive events; knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe; knowledge and skills to produce traditional crafts shall be sent to the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund.
Projects related to artistic creation (music, cinema, theater, design, crafts, visual arts...) shall be sent to the International Fund for Cultural Diversity or to the International Fund for the Promotion of Culture.
International Assistance under the World Heritage Fund can support projects falling under one of the following three categories:
Emergency Assistance
Conservation & Management Assistance
Preparatory Assistance
Following are universities that include specialized study of World Heritage issues. You can consult the Education section of this website to learn how to contact the universities directly for more information.
Africa
- Cameroon: Ecole de faune de Garoua/Garoua Wildlife School
- United Republic of Tanzania: Mweka College of African Wildlife Management
Asia and the Pacific
- Japan: Tsukuba University
- Australia: Deakin University (Melbourne)
Europe and North America
- Germany: Brandenburger University of Technology, Cottbus (BTU)
- Ireland: University College Dublin (UCD)
- Russian Federation: Moscow State M.V. Lomonosov University
- United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland: MA Programme of the University Durham
Depending on their amount, International Assistance requests under the World Heritage Fund are approved by
- the Director of the World Heritage Centre, when the request is for US$5,000 or less;
- the Chairperson of the World Heritage Committee, when the request is between US$5,001 and US$30,000 (but between US$5,001 and US$75,000 for emergency assistance requests);
- the World Heritage Committee, when the request is above US$30,000 (above US$75,000 for emergency assistance requests).
Everything is summarized on the page on the Rules for International Assistance.
The World Heritage Centre is constantly concluding partnerships with new partners in order to ensure the preservation of natural and cultural diversity in the long term. These partners include States Parties, Advisory Bodies, non-governmental and inter-governmental organizations, the private sector and the media. Click here to see the list of our partners and their actions to support projects.
International assistance requests under the World Heritage Fund are evaluated by both the World Heritage Centre and the Advisory Bodies to the World Heritage Committee, namely ICOMOS and ICCROM for cultural or mixed heritage and IUCN for natural or mixed heritage.
International assistance requests for US$30,000 or less are evaluated by the World Heritage Centre only. The Advisory Bodies to the World Heritage Committee may be also consulted whenever necessary.
All States Parties to the World Heritage Convention are eligible in principle. But they must have paid their dues to the World Heritage Fund.
Individuals, foundations, IGOs and NGOs are not eligible for submitting International Assistance requests under the World Heritage Fund.
Countries (or States Parties) submit nomination proposals to the World Heritage Committee. If the Committee determines, based on the recommendations of its Advisory Bodies (ICOMOS and IUCN), that the nomination meets at least one of the necessary criteria, then the property proposed by the State Party is inscribed on the World Heritage List. In general, the Committee adds about 25-30 sites per year to the list. Today there are 1007 sites on the list, located in 161 countries around the world. For more information please refer to the Operational Guidelines.
The site is the property of the country on whose territory it is located, but it is considered in the interest of the international community to protect the site for future generations. Its protection and preservation becomes a concern of the international World Heritage community as a whole.