Since the World Heritage Convention was adopted in 1972, the World Heritage List has continually evolved and is growing steadily.

With this growth, a critical need has emerged for guidance for States Parties on the implementation of the Convention. Various expert meetings and results of the periodic reporting process have identified the need for more focused training and capacity development in specific areas where States Parties and World Heritage site managers require greater support. The development of this series of World Heritage Resource Manuals is a response to this need.

The publication of the series is a joint undertaking by the three Advisory Bodies of the World Heritage Convention (ICCROM, ICOMOS and IUCN) and the UNESCO World Heritage Centre as the Secretariat of the Convention.

Four Manuals have been published so far in English and French:

  1. Managing Disaster Risks for World Heritage
  2. Preparing World Heritage Nominations
  3. Managing Natural World Heritage
  4. Managing Cultural World Heritage

These four manuals are now available in Spanish thanks to the generous support of the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment.