How you can support our World Heritage work

Support our work

Only 271 natural protected areas have been designated as World Heritage by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, from the highest mountain peaks, through forests, deserts, wetlands and reefs. Examples include the Galápagos Islands, Kilimanjaro National Park, Yellowstone National Park, the Great Barrier Reef, Uruq Bani Ma’arid or Jeju Volcanic Island and Lava Tubes. As the official advisor on nature for World Heritage, IUCN receives some funding from UNESCO to cover a part of the basic annual work on evaluating nominations of new sites and monitoring of about 50 sites each year.

With your support we can scale up our ongoing work, including:

• regularly assess the conservation outlook of all natural World Heritage sites
• map potential candidate World Heritage sites and explore which ecosystems are missing on the World Heritage List
• provide capacity building training to countries and site managers
• match policy advice with IUCN’s field conservation work in World Heritage sites

Donate now or contact us for larger contributions.

Partner with us

IUCN strives to mobilize its wide networks of experts, members, and partners to support the conservation of natural World Heritage sites. We are actively seeking partnerships including with donors, research institutions, governments and across the IUCN Membership, to drive implementation of the 2023 IUCN World Heritage Strategy. Our current priorities include:

• Build a consortium of partners (including IUCN Members) to address threats in World Heritage sites through large-scale landscape initiatives, prioritizing natural sites in Africa, on the Danger List and with a negative conservation outlook. We are supporting countries with World Heritage proposals for the Green Climate Fund (GCF), Global Environment Facility (GEF), and Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF). Focus areas are building resilience to climate change, implementing the Biodiversity Plan, and managing invasive alien species.
   
• Continue and scale up our ongoing work on potential new World Heritage sites, evaluating nominations, monitoring of existing sites, and capacity building.
   
• IUCN World Conservation Congress (October 2025): ensure World Heritage site managers and speakers from global south can participate, high-level roundtable with park directors and superintendents, World Heritage-inspired art & cultural events.

We are currently seeking a leading partner for the following initiatives:

• World Heritage & Species Conservation:
  • World Heritage sites protect over 20% of mapped global species richness, as shown by a UNESCO/IUCN report. This initiative could include a series of scientific reports looking at species in World Heritage sites, supporting IUCN Species Survival Commissions & species action plans (including capacity building), IUCN species expeditions, or a dedicated World Heritage call for proposals through the IUCN SOS fund.

• World Heritage & Green List
  • Despite their iconic status, only 50% of the natural World Heritage sites have effective protection and management overall, as shown by the 2020 IUCN World Heritage Outlook. This initiative would apply the IUCN Green List certification process to improve management of World Heritage sites, while sharing management success stories with the wider conservation community.

• World Heritage & Culture and Rights Initiative
  • A multi-year programme on biocultural diversity and nature conservation to help implement the Joint Programme of Work on the Links between Biological and Cultural Diversity adopted at the CBD COP15. This initiative would improve the integration of human-rights based approaches and promote culture-centred conservation strategies.

• Act for World Heritage campaign
  • Despite their iconic status, World Heritage is facing a funding crisis for many years and sites are not immune to growing threats from biodiversity loss, climate change and pollution. This initiative would galvanize private support for World Heritage sites most in need through a global communication & fundraising campaign, targeting contributions from philanthropy, businesses, and World Heritage patrons.

Contribute to the
IUCN World Heritage Outlook

The IUCN World Heritage Outlook regularly assesses all listed natural World Heritage sites. You can help us improve it by sharing your knowledge of natural World Heritage sites.

• Register your interest to help shape the 4th IUCN World Heritage Outlook (deadline 30 September 2024)
• Provide feedback on the accuracy of Conservation Outlook Assessments, either by leaving your comments on the website or emailing us.
• Register interest in participating in the next consultation process for the IUCN World Heritage Outlook consultation process, taking place in 2024 and 2025. To do so, download the dedicated consultation form (available in English, French, and Spanish and email it to us.

Submit information on threats to
natural World Heritage sites

Each year, IUCN prepares State of Conservation (SoC) reports for about 60 of the most threatened natural and mixed World Heritage sites in collaboration with UNESCO and ICOMOS. You can help us by submitting information on these sites. Download the IUCN World Heritage SOC Consultation Form and email it to [email protected].

Contribute as an expert reviewer for new nominations

Would you like to be included in the IUCN database of World Heritage experts to be contacted in future for the evaluation of nominations of new World Heritage sites? Expert reviewers should either know the nominated site in question or be able to comment on its significance at the global level; should have some knowledge of the World Heritage Convention and preferably understand the criteria and the conditions of integrity for the inscription of a World Heritage site. More information is available here.