Marine World Heritage managers: A flagship network empowered to transform how we protect
The World Heritage List includes 50 marine sites across 37 nations. Local managers at these sites have confronted every imaginable problem facing our temperate and tropical oceans, and many have created leading edge solutions. Tapping the vast expertise contained within the network helps accelerate achieving sustainable marine protected areas in the framework of the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Expertise is shared from across the network through site-to-site field visits, e-communication and tri-annual global managers conferences, facilitated by the World Heritage Marine Programme.Voices from the field
The management teams from the marine World Heritage sites share their story of how COVID-19 impacts their conservation work.
Managers Network Highlights
West Norwegian Fjords and Glacier Bay National Park sign cooperation agreement
In September 2019, West Norwegian Fjords-Geirangerfjord/Nærøyfjord (Norway) and Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve (USA) signed a formal cooperation agreement to secure sustainable cruise ship operations at the respective World Heritage sites. Efforts are underway to expand the collaboration to other marine World Heritage sites with similar challenges.
4th global marine World Heritage managers conference
Every three years, managers from the 50 World Heritage marine sites come together to share their best practices, discuss conservation solutions and forge a united path forward. The conferences are geared toward replication of success. Latest edition was held in September 2019 and build upon 2016, 2013 and 2010 managers conferences.
Read more | 2019 Photo gallery | 2019 Conference film | 2016 Photo gallery | 2016 Conference film
Management best practices from the marine World Heritage network
The best practice guide outlines a step by step approach on how to achieve environmental, social and economic objectives that lead to sustainably managed marine protected areas. The guide is based on best practices from across marine World Heritage sites and established expertise in marine protected area management. The guide was published in 2015 and is now available in 5 languages.
Read more | English | French | Spanish | Indonesian | Arabic
Managers gather in Wadden Sea to discuss impacts of marine litter
Managers from across the marine Word Heritage network came together in the Wadden Sea during a 3-day workshop to exchange practices in monitoring the impact of marine litter, successful clean up campaigns and impactful solutions to reduce marine plastic and waste. An online survey among marine World Heritage sites assessed the scope of litter and plastics and its impact on sites’ Outstanding Universal Value.
© UNESCO/Daniel Correia, UNESCO/Andreas Krueger, Robbert Casier
News (18)
- Stepping up management of Komodo’s outstanding marine environment 16-Dec-2019
- Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park Superintendent wins prestigious KfW-Bernhard-Grzimek-Preis 23-Sep-2019
- World’s flagship marine protected areas gather in milestone conference toward United Nations 2030 Agenda 10-Sep-2019
- Celebrating women scientists in World Heritage marine sites 08-Jun-2019
- Join UNESCO to celebrate women in ocean science at World Oceans Day 2019 24-May-2019
Events (13)
- Online Meeting: How to apply the Climate Vulnerability Index to your marine World Heritage site? 03-Dec-2020-03-Dec-2020
- Online Meeting: Lessons learned from Covid-19 for marine World Heritage protection and community well-being 10-Sep-2020-10-Sep-2020
- Online Meeting: How to successfully build resilience-based management at your marine World Heritage site? 17-Jun-2020
- Online Meeting: Biodiversity and Covid-19 21-Apr-2020
- Workshop on marine World Heritage in Komodo National Park 25-Nov-2019-29-Nov-2019