IUCN World Heritage Week

An Introduction to the World Heritage Convention and role IUCN (English, French, Spanish)

This session will provide a general overview of IUCN's role as Advisory Body under the World Heritage Convention. IUCN is the named advisor on nature to the World Heritage Committee, and in this capacity IUCN evaluates nominations of new sites, monitors the conservation status of existing sites, builds capacity, and provides technical and policy advice to UNESCO, countries, and the World Heritage Committee. The session will also introduce the World Heritage Team, including the WCPA Vice-Chair for World Heritage. 

How to list tentatively, how to evaluate conclusively? (English, French, Spanish)

This session will present the Toolkit for Developing and Revising Tentative Lists Upstream work highlighting the importance of robust Tentative Lists for successful World Heritage nomination projects, followed by an outline of the preliminary assessment and evaluation process conducted by IUCN in line with the Operational Guidelines. The session will close with a Q&A to discuss the World Heritage evaluation process and upstream support provided by the Advisory Bodies.

How can IUCN project officers find World Heritage information? (English)

This session will present how to find World Heritage information (maps, conservation priorities identified by IUCN, etc.), in view of identifying more opportunities for IUCN to support World Heritage conservation. The 2023 IUCN World Heritage Strategy focuses on supporting the World Heritage Convention to make the greatest conservation impact. The Strategy is implemented by engaging the whole IUCN Union, while on-the-ground conservation action is coordinated via IUCN's network of regional and country officers. 

Monitoring the state of conservation of World Heritage sites (English)

With 271 natural sites now recognised on the World Heritage List for their Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) to humankind, this session will outline IUCN’s core role as the official Advisory Body on nature to the World Heritage Convention in monitoring the state of conservation of World Heritage around the world. It will highlight IUCN’s monitoring work under the Reactive Monitoring processes of the Convention, present best practice tools and guidance to support effective protection and management, as well as outline opportunities for Commission experts to support this work through technical expertise. The session is aimed at those who are interested in contributing to IUCN’s monitoring work.