The three day workshop was held under the patronage of Minister of Culture in Bahrain in cooperation with French Coastal Protection Agency aimed at discussing the relationship between developing tourism and conserving Coastal World Heritage Site in Bahrain.

The participants had the opportunity to examine various Arabic and international experiences in conserving marine environment and managing coastal sites through two days of discussions in the Arab Regional Center for World Heritage.

Hawar Islands were listed as a Ramsar site in 1997. Therefore, workshop organizers planned to visit the wonderful islands to give the participants the chance to enjoy the richness of biodiversity in Bahrain.

The workshop concluded with the following recommendations:

• Review the institutional and legal frameworks about conserving the marine environment and resources.
• Build local capacities in order to improve marine environment.
• Develop a database about the coastal sites in Bahrain.
• Study the environment in Hawar Islands to develop a database about it.
• Train the Bahraini experts on statistics, animals and birds migration and coastal sites management.

for more information, kindly contact:

Haifaa Abdulhalim - Haifa.abdulhalim@iucn.org

IUCN - Regional World Heritage Coordinator, Arab States & West Asia.
Tabe'a- World Heritage Program