1: Half of World Heritage Sites threatened by development, says WWF
Nearly half of all natural World Heritage sites are threatened by harmful industrial activities, according to a new WWF report. These sites provide vital services to people and the environment, but are at risk worldwide from activities including oil and gas exploration, mining and illegal logging.
The report, produced for WWF by Dalberg Global Development Advisors, shows how natural World Heritage sites contribute to economic and social development through the protection of the environment, but also details global failures to protect these areas of outstanding universal value.
Read the full article here.
2: UNESCO & European Commission to develop new cultural routes
UNESCO and the European Commission are launching a project to develop cultural routes that would benefit from the power of World Heritage sites to attract tourists to promote other cultural assets such as museums and festivals, for example, along selected European itineraries.
Funded by the Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (DG-Growth), the project entered its first, preparatory stage on 1 February with a provisional budget of 1.5 million euros.
The first Heritage Routes will be offered to travelers by late 2017. The project foresees that visitors to UNESCO World Heritage sites will be able to use consumer-friendly platforms and mobile applications to get maps and information concerning cultural places and, where appropriate, visits to intangible cultural heritage events that they can include in their trip.
Read the full article here.
3: Your tourist snaps can help preserve threatened heritage sites for the future
Our present is intrinsically bound up with our past, our sense of identity shaped and moulded by the cultural legacies of our forebears. That’s why organisations such as UNESCO exist to protect the cultural heritage of the world for current and future generations.
Recent years have all too clearly shown the need for that protection, with wars in the Middle East leading to the destruction or looting of many ancient monuments, while others are lost to natural disasters, cultural vandalism and iconoclasm or neglect. What can we do to prevent the loss of precious cultural heritage in the future?
Read the full article here.
4: UNESCO World Heritage Sites and the Downside of Cultural Tourism
Most of the locals don’t live in Luang Prabang anymore. They began an exodus from Laos’ seeming Shangri-La after their hometown was listed a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995, and sold itself wholesale to tourism.
It’s not an uncommon pattern at some of the 1,031 sites worldwide designated as places of “outstanding universal value” by the U.N. cultural agency: The international branding sparks mass tourism, residents move out as prices escalate or grab at new business opportunities, hastening the loss of their hometown’s authentic character to hyper-commercialization. But locals may also prosper and some moribund communities are injected with renewed energy.
Read the full article here.
5: Unlocking the stored up potential of cultural routes
Cultural routes are becoming increasingly important for attracting widespread media and traveler attention and re-igniting interest in ancient cultures and traditions along mostly forgotten corridors. These “signature” cultural routes are helping destinations to further distinguish themselves, to re-invigorate rural areas, to stimulate product innovation and to create renewed value and interest in once important paths.
So important are cultural routes that the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) in cooperation with the Tourism Agency of the Balearic Islands (ATB) recently released the Global Report on Cultural Routes and Itineraries, which provides key information about current trends and presents case studies in the field of the development of cultural routes, with an emphasis on the importance of protecting, preserving and conserving these itineraries.
Read the full article here.
