At its extended 45th session in September 2023 in Riyadh, the World Heritage Committee, in its Decision 45COM 7A.4, adopted the desired state of conservation for the removal of the Mount Nimba Strict Nature Reserve from the List of World Heritage in Danger (DSOCR). During the same session, the World Heritage Centre, in collaboration with IUCN, organized a brainstorming meeting with representatives of the delegations of Côte d'Ivoire and Guinea, during which two key proposals were ..read more

The "My Heritage” short-film competition is back!The Arab Centre for World Heritage (ARC-WH) and the Heritage Commission in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in collaboration with the UNESCO Chair for World Heritage management and Sustainable Tourism in the Arab Region, is pleased to announce to invite you to participate in the third edition of the short-film competition "My Heritage.”In this year the competition focuses of the traditional handicrafts in the World Heritage Sites and ..read more

Inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1981 under criterion (x) referring to its unique biodiversity and exceptional ecosystems, the Niokolo-Koba National Park (Senegal) has been on the List of World Heritage in Danger since 2007, due to various disturbances to its biodiversity and ecosystems, as well as the emergence of development projects. It is in this context that UNESCO is supporting the State Party of Senegal, in particular the National Parks Directorate (DPN), through the ..read more

The Jodensavanne Archaeological Site: Jodensavanne Settlement and the Cassipora Creek Cemetery Twenty-five years after being included in the Tentative List of Suriname, this serial property was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2023. "The Jodensavanne Archaeological Site: Jodensavanne Settlement and Cassipora Creek Cemetery”, is comprised of two 17th-century component parts that are historically interconnected, namely the remnants of the former Jewish Settlement named ..read more

In April 2023, during its visit to Chernihiv and its meeting with the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, committed to supporting efforts to rehabilitate the historic centre of Chernihiv, deeply affected in the first months of the war by the attacks from the Russian Federation. To draw up this important planning tool, a new mission of UNESCO and ICOMOS experts took place from March 18 to 22, 2024. For several months now, UNESCO has been ..read more

In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, the global tourism industry faced significant setbacks, particularly affecting economies heavily reliant on tourism, like Seychelles. The pandemic showed the vulnerability of tourism, leading to a drastic decline of over 70% in foreign visitors to Seychelles in 2020. This downturn highlighted the nation's dependence on tourism revenue to sustain its population and facilitate international imports, emphasizing the need to strengthen its tourism ..read more

World Heritage in the 21st Century: Building Capacities and Exploring Opportunities for Youth As an integral part of the 46th session of the World Heritage Committee and in the framework of the UNESCO World Heritage Education Programme, the Ministry of Culture through the Archaeological Survey of India, will host the World Heritage Young Professionals Forum 2024 under the theme of World Heritage in the 21st Century: Building Capacities and Exploring Opportunities for Youth from 14 to 23 ..read more

In a pivotal moment for global sustainable development, the UNESCO-EU Regional Preparatory Capacity-Building Workshop  successfully gathered representatives from 24 countries, emphasizing the critical role of enhanced data collection in achieving culture-driven sustainable development. In alignment with the 2022 MONDIACULT Declaration, which emphasizes the pivotal role of data collection and evidence-based actions, programs and policies in positioning culture as a global public good ..read more

UNESCO and ICOMOS visited the Archaeological Ruins at Moenjodaro, Pakistan, in early March 2024 to monitor the restoration work and elaborate a strategy for drastic intervention in recovering from the disastrous rainfall of August 2022. Mohenjodaro, a world-renowned Indus civilisation metropolis dating back to the third millennium BCE, began to be excavated in 1922. From 1974 to 1997, UNESCO launched one of the most extensive international safeguarding campaigns at the request of the ..read more

45 experts were trained on culture's enabling contribution to the national and local implementation of the Goals and Targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development during a 4-day online training workshop from October 27, 2023, to January 17, 2024. The experts are pre-selected members of the latest cohort of the UNESCO/EU Expert Facility supporting the UNESCO programme "Advancing evidence-based policies and actions and supporting policy making to enhance the contribution of ..read more