From 19 to 21 October 2016, the UNESCO Office in Tashkent will organize, in close collaboration with the UNESCO World Heritage Centre and the Board of Monuments of Uzbekistan, a consultation meeting in Bukhara (Uzbekistan) to discuss the application of the UNESCO Recommendation on Historic Urban Landscape (HUL, 2011) at two historic centres located within the World Heritage properties ‘Historic Centre of Bukhara’ and ‘Samarkand – Crossroad of Cultures’ (Uzbekistan). This meeting aims to strengthen the institutional and administrative framework for the protection of these Uzbek World Heritage properties along with the management system and land use regulations, in accordance with UNESCO's approaches and strategic planning.

During its 39th session in July 2015, the World Heritage Committee adopted several decisions regarding the state of conservation of the aforementioned World Heritage properties. In Decisions 39 COM 7B.79 and 39 COM 7B.80, the Committee encouraged the State Party of Uzbekistan to apply the HUL Recommendation as a useful tool to help manage development projects within the World Heritage properties and to seek international assistance. The consultation meeting is therefore prepared to address the conservation and management issues at the two World Heritage properties, and was made possible thanks to the generous financial contribution from the UNESCO / Netherlands Funds-in-Trust project “Application of the UNESCO Recommendation on Historic Urban landscape (HUL, 2011) at the World Heritage properties of the Historic Centre of Bukhara and Samarkand, Uzbekistan”.

Immediately after the Bukhara consultation meeting, the next round of workshops on Management Plans for World Heritage Properties in Uzbekistan will be organized from 22 to 29 October 2016 in Bukhara, Khiva and Shakhrisyabz. Following these meetings, the documents pertaining to the Management Plans and Strategic Plans will be reviewed and the process of the development of the Management Plans for the historic cities of Bukhara, Shakhrisyabz and Itchan Kala will then be in conformity with the requirements of the World Heritage Convention.