United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and World Heritage Background

Following World Wars I and II, and the looting and destruction of cultural treasures around the globe, United Nations and other officials began to devise ways to preserve and protect our collective cultural heritage. In 1959, concern for protecting cultural treasures grew as the world heard of the plan to build the Aswan High Dam in Egypt, which would flood the area containing the Abu Simbel and Philae temples (c. 1200 BCE). Fifty countries raised $90 million to dismantle, relocate, and rebuild the temples. This collective effort to save the temples from destruction led to discussion about the protection of other important cultural and natural treasures. In 1972, UNESCO adopted an international treaty called the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. The sites protected by this treaty now include 679 cultural, 174 natural, and twenty-five mixed sites in 145 States Parties.

Though many of the Human/Nature sites are also home to populations of indigenous people, they are designated as “natural” sites by UNESCO to preserve the rare, striking, and important natural landforms and ecosystems at the locations. It is important to note that in the relatively short time since the project's inception in 2004, some of the artists have reported changes in both the natural integrity and cultural traditions at the sites—which makes raising public awareness of the sites even more important. For example, in 2007, the Galápagos Islands of Ecuador were added to the World Heritage in Danger list. The thirty sites on the World Heritage in Danger list are those that UNESCO deems the most threatened of its 878 designated sites.

To view the World Heritage in Danger list, click here.

To learn more about UNESCO World Heritage sites and their history, click here.