Story | 11 Nov, 2015
IUCN and UNESCO welcome no-go pledge for World Heritage sites by Tullow Oil
IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature, the official advisory body on natural World Heritage, and UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre have welcomed a new commitment by British company Tullow Oil plc to stay out of World Heritage sites. The firm had received a licence to explore for…
Story | 03 Nov, 2015
IUCN and UNESCO explore how World Heritage can protect the high seas
Watch this video to learn why IUCN has joined forces with UNESCO’s Marine World Heritage Programme to explore how the World Heritage Convention could protect the high seas.
Grey literature | 2014
The Sekong River in Viet Nam, Lao PDR and Cambodia
The purpose of this paper is to provide a range of information which may be useful during dialogue to establish appropriate river flow regimes in the Sekong River in Viet Nam, Lao PDR and Cambodia when large hydropower projects are constructed and operated. It is designed to provide baseline or…
Story | 08 Sep, 2015
World Heritage status for wilderness helps respond to climate change
Nature experts, including several IUCN specialists, are calling for a new approach to conserving wilderness areas under the World Heritage Convention in a paper published today in Conservation Letters. Inscribing wilderness sites on the World Heritage List and improving their connectivity…
Publication | 2015
Ethics and climate change : a study of national commitments
Climate change is the most significant moral and environmental issue of our time. This project seeks to help deepen explicit ethical reflection around the world on national responses to climate change by developing a publicly available record on national compliance with ethical obligations for…
Publication | 2015
Resilience of coastal systems and their human partners
This report explains the ecology and social profile of coastal systems in Kenya, Mozambique and Tanzania in order to contribute to the development of effective strategies to enhance the resilience of marine and coastal systems in the Western Indian Ocean. Special consideration is given to the…
Story | 07 Jul, 2015
Kishore Rao’s 40-year journey through protected areas and World Heritage
As the 39th World Heritage Committee concludes, Kishore Rao steps down for retirement after having headed UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre for over four years. With a background in nature conservation, he has worked on the World Heritage Convention from the perspectives of its secretariat, its…
Press release | 02 Jul, 2015
Jamaica’s first World Heritage listing ups the number of natural sites to 229
The Blue and John Crow Mountains has become Jamaica’s first World Heritage site today, following advice from IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature, responsible for evaluating the site’s natural values. Extensions of South Africa’s Cape Floral Region Protected Areas and Viet…
Story | 30 Jun, 2015
World Heritage site in danger: Man and nature in Virunga National Park
Among the World Heritage sites in Danger is Virunga National Park, which has been on the endangered list for more than 20 years. Over these years, Africa’s oldest national park has faced numerous threats, including armed conflict, poaching and the discovery and exploration of oil.
Press release | 24 Jun, 2015
Climate change and dams threaten natural World Heritage, warns IUCN
Climate change and large dam projects are putting natural World Heritage sites at risk, says IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature, the official advisory body on nature to UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee, meeting this Sunday in Bonn, Germany.