World Heritage: Challenges for the MillenniumPublished by the UNESCO World Heritage Centre
January 2007
Available in English and French
Richly illustrated with photos, maps and statistical graphs, this publication brings to life diverse sites of the World Heritage Convention, from the mythic halls of the Taj Mahal to Egypt’s Wadi Al-Hitan, a desert valley peppered by the skeletons of extinct whales from a bygone climate.
The publication explores the challenges and successes in implementing the Convention over the past 30 years. A historical perspective serves as the backdrop to analyse the current state of conservation of cultural and natural World Heritage sites before exploring looming areas of concern, such as the impact of climate change and armed conflict as well as the opportunities and pitfalls of the tourism industry.
A user-friendly approach has been adopted to clarify the main issues covered, and complementary information is offered in a variety of illustrative boxes, figures, maps, tables, focus sections and commentaries. Numerous internet links and references simplify research for complementary information. The collaboration with the UNESCO Institute for Statistics based in Montreal, Canada has allowed, for the first time, statistical presentations of many aspects of the Convention and has resulted in high quality statistics and analyses.
This work is the result of a collective effort of many partners and professionals and has been made possible by the generous grant of the Italian Government.