World Heritage Site Managers Forum 2019

The World Heritage List includes over 1.000 properties covering over 276 million hectares under the 1972 World Heritage Convention’s protection. Increased understanding of the World Heritage decision-making processes among Site Managers has become crucial in order to achieve more effective protection of the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of World Heritage properties. It will allow the Convention to fulfill its potential as a tool and catalyst for World Heritage protection and heritage protection in general. 

At the same time, future improvements to the World Heritage decision-making procedures must build on and respond to greater engagement of those dealing with World Heritage on a day-to-day basis. Stronger bridges should be built between the procedural core of the World Heritage system and its outer segments – those in the field whose ongoing work to safeguard OUV constitutes the real expression of the Convention. 

In this context, the Host Country of the World Heritage Committee session will continue the commendable initiative of the “World Heritage Site Managers Forum”, to unite representatives from World Heritage properties with those at the heart of World Heritage procedures. The Site Managers Forum will be held this year in Baku, from 26 June to 4 July 2019.