The regional meeting on the implementation of the UNESCO Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape in the Arab States will be take place in Rabat, Kingdom of Morocco, from 9 to 11 December 2013. This meeting, organized by the World Heritage Centre and the UNESCO Office for the Maghreb (RABAT), in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture of Morocco will be held in the framework of the World Heritage regional programme for the Arab States.

In the framework of the World Heritage regional programme for the Arab States and with reference to the outcomes of the annual meeting of the Arab States’ World Heritage Focal Points, natural and cultural, held in Manama, Bahrain, in December 2012, this meeting aims at promoting the Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape and its principles in order to have the latter widely disseminated and applied by all stakeholders dealing with the conservation of urban heritage in general and historic cities in particular, notably those inscribed on the World Heritage List.

Today, half of the world’s population leaves in an urban environment which has become the centre of most of the political and socio-economical stakes. This urban environment is the result of a physical and historical stratification as well as interactions between attributes that carry the cultural values of the inhabitants. The sustainable conservation of urban heritage depends, among other things, on the place it is given in the process of definition of the development policies.

The representatives of the Arab States at this meeting will exchange with a group of experts about the content and objectives of the Recommendation as well as prospects relating to its application in the Arab world, towards the improvement of the management of historic areas inscribed on the World Heritage List and cities in general. Furthermore, this meeting will also be an opportunity to present several case studies related to urban conservation of emblematic historic cities in the Arab world and to analyze them in the context of the Recommendation in order to identify the necessary elements and interventions that would improve heritage management in the urban space and the quality of life of the inhabitants.