Early notification of collapse of House of Wonders in Zanzibar
http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/2233
Following news of the collapse of a part of the House of Wonders (Beit-al-Ajaib) in Stone Town, Zanzibar on 25 December 2020, the Director of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Ms Mechtild Rössler joins the people of Zanzibar, and the United Republic of Tanzania in general to mourn this sudden and significant loss.
The House of Wonders is one of the outstanding monuments in the Stone Town of Zanzibar (United Republic of Tanzania), a property inscribed on the World Heritage List since ...
A bushfire in Fraser Island, Australia
http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/2232
The World Heritage Centre expresses concerns over on-going bushfires at Fraser Island World Heritage area in Australia, the largest sand island in the world, and solidarity with the people affected by the blaze.
The UNESCO World Heritage Centre has been receiving expressions of concern over the possible impact of the bushfire on the World Heritage property "Fraser Island?h. The property, located just off the east coast of Australia, was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1992 and ...
UNESCO vigilant on potential impacts of oil exploration in Namibia and Botswana on World Heritage properties
http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/2230
UNESCO's World Heritage Centre vigilant on potential impacts of oil and gas exploration in Namibia and Botswana on the Tsodila and Okavango Delta World Heritage properties.
UNESCO's World Heritage Centre has been made aware of petitions by civil society groups received by the UNESCO office in Windhoek, Namibia. The Centre is following with attention and concern the oil and gas exploration projects in north-eastern Namibia and north-western Botswana by the Canadian company ...
New Year's Message from the Director of UNESCO's World Heritage Centre
http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/2229
The year 2020 was intended to be a "biodiversity super year?h. Many far-reaching decisions concerning the preservation of biodiversity were meant to be taken in 2020. But due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of international meetings could not take place and have been postponed.
 Meanwhile, the pandemic is not an isolated phenomenon. Scientific evidence links the emergence of the COVID-19 virus to the breakdown of ecosystems and biodiversity loss. Humankind has been destroying ...
30th Anniversary of San Gimignano's inscription on the World Heritage List
http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/2228
12 December 2020 marked the 30th anniversary of the inscription of the Historic Centre of San Gimignano on UNESCO's World Heritage List. 
On this occasion, the City of San Gimignano organized a celebratory event, bringing together high-level representatives from the Italian government and UNESCO, as well as site managers, experts, artists, and representatives from the public sector and academia.
The Director of the World Heritage Centre, Mechtild Rössler, delivered a speech ...
Join the World Heritage Volunteers 2020-2021 Campaign
http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/2227
Fostering Youth Commitment towards World Heritage
The UNESCO World Heritage Centre is pleased to announce the selected projects of the World Heritage Volunteers 2020 - 2021 Campaign.
Under the theme Fostering Youth Commitment towards World Heritage, 55 action camp projects will be implemented from February to December 2021, at 55 World Heritage properties and sites on the Tentative Lists, by 49 organizations in 32 countries. These projects will include concrete awareness-raising and ...
Monitoring World Heritage site closures
http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/2103
Monitoring World Heritage site closures
Introduction to the global map on the closure of World Heritage sites due to Covid-19 and analysis.
In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, many governments have taken measures to restrict movements of people and access to certain areas.
This includes the closure of natural and cultural World Heritage sites in the 167 countries they are located in. Please consider the following when reviewing the map:
The World Heritage Convention has been ratified ...
2019-2020 World Heritage Map Published
http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/2226
The latest version of the World Heritage map, produced by the UNESCO World Heritage Centre can now be ordered from the World Heritage Centre website.
The featured image on the map presents the Fujian Tulou World Heritage property in China, country hosting the next extended 44th session of the World Heritage Committee in June/July 2021.
This poster-sized wall map features all 1,121 World Heritage properties and is illustrated with magnificent photos and explanatory captions. It ...
How marine World Heritage sites successfully assess climate vulnerability
http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/2225
On 3 December 2020, climate experts and local management teams from the 50 UNESCO marine World Heritage sites met online in an effort to accelerate replication of initial successes in assessing climate vulnerability. 
The online meeting was the fourth edition in a new digital exchange platform that was launched by the World Heritage Centre in March 2020.During the meeting, experts from Australia's James Cook University presented a newly developed rapid assessment tool called the ...
Firefighting training at Kasubi Tombs World Heritage site in Uganda
http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/2224
UNESCO's Heritage Emergency Fund (HEF) supported an on-site firefighting training on 7 December 2020 for local communities and site management at the Tombs of Buganda Kings at Kasubi World Heritage site in Uganda organized by the Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities Department of Museums and Monuments.
The training is part of an ongoing HEF project for "Post-fire emergency assistance for the World Heritage property of the Tombs of Buganda Kings at Kasubi, Uganda?h ...
