World Rowing commits to UNESCO World Heritage sites

The World Rowing Federation, FISA, is the first global sports body to pledge a commitment to protecting World Heritage sites.

The commitment has developed out of World Rowing’s Clean Water partnership with WWF International and is part of WWF’s global campaign to strengthen the protection of natural World Heritage sites.

World Rowing recognizes that large sporting events can have a negative impact on a location and the federation has put into action a policy on natural and mixed World Heritage sites to enforce a commitment to protect these areas.

“UNESCO welcomes this landmark decision,” said Mechtild Rössler, Director of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre. “We look forward to other sport federations and organizations in charge of large sports events, such as the International Olympic Committee, also taking on a similar commitment and putting such policies into practice.”