World Heritage Sites

African World Heritage Day

Proclaimed by the 38th session of the General Conference of UNESCO (November 2015), African World Heritage Day (5 May) is an opportunity for people around the world, and particularly Africans, to celebrate the Continent’s unique cultural and natural heritage. While Africa is underrepresented on the World Heritage List (African properties account for some 12% of all inscribed sites worldwide), a disproportionally high percentage (39%) of these properties are on the World Heritage List in Danger. Faced with various contemporary threats, such as climate change, uncontrolled development, poaching, civil unrest and instability, many of Africa’s wonders risk losing their outstanding universal value. It is therefore more urgent than ever that this irreplaceable heritage be protected and preserved for the enjoyment of future generations.

UNESCO is committed to spearhead international efforts to draw on the vast potential of Africa’s cultural and natural heritage as a force for poverty reduction and social cohesion as well as a driver of sustainable development and innovation. Through this international day, UNESCO aims to increase global awareness of African heritage, with a special focus on youth, and to mobilise enhanced cooperation for its safeguarding on the local, regional and global level. #MyAfricaHeritage

Africa is one of UNESCO’s Global Priorities. The African Renaissance is underway, with the adoption of the African Union Agenda 2063 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development paving the ground for the African development.

The Africa region has currently 98 properties inscribed on the World Heritage List, including 54 cultural properties, 39 natural properties and 5 mixed properties. Conservation of UNESCO World Heritage in the Africa region is continuously monitored by the Reactive Monitoring mechanism. There are 15 properties are inscribed on the List in Danger. While working to ensure the conservation of all inscribed properties, the Africa unit is working to develop the Desired State of Conservation for the Removal (DSOCR) for these properties for their eventual removals from the List in Danger.

As the Africa region represents only 9% of the World Heritage List, the Africa unit is also working closely with partners and the African World Heritage Fund (AWHF) to increase the number of sites nominated on the World Heritage List from the Africa region.

African World Heritage Fund

The African World Heritage Fund (AWHF) strives towards the effective conservation and protection of Africa’s natural and cultural heritage. AWHF is for African Union (AU) member states that signed the 1972 UNESCO World Heritage Convention in support of these goals. The AWHF is the first regional funding initiative within the framework of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention.

The AWHF was launched in May 2006 under South African Trust Law in order to provide finance and technical support for the effective conservation and protection of Africa’s natural and cultural heritage of outstanding universal value. The fund was established as a result of work undertaken by African member states of UNESCO with the objective of developing an ongoing strategy to deal with the challenges that most African countries have in implementing the World Heritage Convention.

Sustainable Tourism

The UNESCO World Heritage and Sustainable Tourism Programme represents a new approach based on dialogue and stakeholder cooperation where planning for tourism and heritage management is integrated at a destination level, the natural and cultural assets are valued and protected, and appropriate tourism developed.

Vision - World Heritage and tourism stakeholders share responsibility for conservation of our common cultural and natural heritage of Outstanding Universal Value and for sustainable development through appropriate tourism management.

A key goal of the UNESCO WH+ST Programme is to strengthen the enabling environment by advocating policies and frameworks that support sustainable tourism as an important vehicle for managing cultural and natural heritage. Developing strategies through broad stakeholder engagement for the planning, development and management of sustainable tourism that follows a destination approach and focuses on empowering local communities is central to UNESCO’s approach.

People Protecting Places is the public exchange platform for the World Heritage and Sustainable Tourism Programme, providing education and information, encouraging support, engaging in social and community dialogue.

The UNESCO World Heritage Centre has developed a capacity building tool for site managers (“How To” Guides) to help them manage tourism at their sites more sustainably.

Assistance to site managers and other stakeholders is essential to ensure that the guides are used as effectively as possible and adapted accordingly to the sites. To achieve this, the World Heritage Centre and the African World Heritage Fund are carrying out a project ‘Sustainable

tourism capacity building in 4 African World

Heritage destinations’. The project consists of organizing a series of practical training and workshops in four World Heritage sites in Africa. • Ngorongoro Conservation Area (Tanzania) • Lake Malawi National Park (Malawi) • Maloti-Drakensberg Park (South Africa /

Lesotho) • Mosi-oa-Tunya/Victoria Falls (Zambia /

Zimbabwe)

The aim is to help each site develop a sustainable tourism strategy using the guidance tools in order to enhance broad stakeholder engagement in planning, development and management of sustainable tourism.

https://whc.unesco.org/en/ Image credit: Mosi-oa-Tunya / Victoria Falls (Zambia, Zimbabwe) © Evergreen