Category Archives: Unesco

US set to rejoin Unesco after leaving during Trump presidency

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Biden committed to rejoining body to ‘counter Chinese influence’ after Trump administration pulled out over ‘anti-Israeli bias’

The US is set to rejoin Unesco this month after a four-year absence from the global cultural and educational body that the country abandoned during the Donald Trump presidency over what his administration called “anti-Israeli bias”.

The United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s reunion with the US came after a two-day special session held at the body’s headquarters in Paris.

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China concerns prompt US move to rejoin Unesco

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Return of US ends decade-long dispute sparked by agency’s move to admit Palestine as a member

The UN’s cultural and scientific agency, Unesco, has announced that the US plans to rejoin – and pay more than $600m (£477m) in back dues – after a decade-long dispute sparked by the organisation’s move to include Palestine as a member.

US officials say the decision to return was motivated by concern that China is filling the gap left by Washington in Unesco policymaking, notably in setting standards for artificial intelligence and technology education around the world.

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York and Shetland sites join UK bids for Unesco world heritage status

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The list of hopefuls also includes sites in Birkenhead, Northern Ireland and the Cayman Islands

The historic city centre of York and ancient settlements in the Shetlands are among seven sites backed by the UK government to win Unesco world heritage status, it has been announced.

York, which boasts the Minster and enjoys a rich history bequeathed by its Anglo-Saxon, Viking and Norman inhabitants, and three ancient settlements known as the “zenith of iron age Shetland” join five other sites announced on the “tentative list” to bid for the status.

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Over-consumption and drought reduce lake in vital Spanish wetland to puddle

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Experts and environmentalists say aquifer feeding Doñana national park, a Unesco heritage site, has been overexploited for tourism and to water fruit farms

The largest permanent lake in Spain’s Doñana national park, one of Europe’s biggest and most important wetlands, has shrivelled to a small puddle as years of drought and overexploitation take their toll on the aquifer that feeds the area and sustains millions of migrating birds.

On Monday, experts from Spain’s National Research Council (CSIC) said the Santa Olalla lake, which sits in a Unesco world heritage site, had dried up for the third time in 50 years.

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South Australia’s Flinders Ranges nominated for Unesco world heritage status

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Dubbed a ‘great outdoor museum’, the fossil-rich region will be assessed by the World Heritage Centre, a process expected to take another two years

South Australia’s iconic and fossil-rich Flinders Ranges is one step closer to being declared one of Australia’s natural wonders on the Unesco World Heritage List.

The area has been nominated for a tentative listing as a world heritage site, on behalf of the South Australian government and the area’s traditional owners, the Adnyamathanha people.

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Ukrainian borscht recognised by Unesco with entry on to safeguarding list

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UN body adds Ukrainian borscht-making to list of intangible cultural heritage that includes Neapolitan pizza-slinging

The UN’s cultural body has added the cooking of Ukrainian borscht to its list of endangered cultural traditions, accepting Ukraine’s petition to fast-track its application following the invasion by neighbouring Russia.

Ukrainian borscht-making “was today inscribed on Unesco’s list of intangible cultural heritage in need of urgent safeguarding”, Unesco said in a statement on Friday.

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Marseille, Alexandria and Istanbul prepare for Mediterranean tsunami

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Risk of significant tsunami within next 30 years is nearly 100%, Unesco says, as it urges coastal cities to become ‘tsunami-ready’

A tsunami could soon hit major cities on or near the Mediterranean Sea including Marseille, Alexandria and Istanbul, with a nearly 100% chance of a wave reaching more than a metre high in the next 30 years, according to Unesco.

The risk of a tsunami in Mediterranean coastal communities is predicted to soar as sea levels rise. While communities in the Pacific and Indian Ocean, where most tsunamis occur, were often aware of the dangers, it was underestimated in other coastal regions, including the Mediterranean, Unesco said.

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Rome’s citizens ask Unesco to help save city from ‘mortifying’ mess

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Residents ask world heritage chief to press council into honouring duty to clean up historic centre

Culture sector workers, artists, professors and environmentalists living in Rome’s historic centre have urged Unesco to remind the city’s council of its duty to protect the world heritage site as they decried “mortifying” scenes of rubbish and other signs of decay.

In a letter addressed to Lazare Eloundou Assomo, the chief of Unesco’s world heritage centre, and signed by 150 people, the group said its complaints to authorities in the Italian capital had been ignored.

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Tanzania’s Maasai appeal to west to stop eviction for conservation plans

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Thousands of Indigenous people sign letter to UK, US and EU protesting at appropriation of land for tourist safaris and hunting

Thousands of Maasai pastoralists in northern Tanzania have written to the UK and US governments and the EU appealing for help to stop plans to evict them from their ancestral land.

More than 150,000 Maasai people face eviction by the Tanzanian government due to moves by the UN cultural agency Unesco and a safari company to use the land for conservation and commercial hunting.

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Iraq’s ancient buildings are being destroyed by climate change

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Water shortages leading to rising salt concentrations and sandstorms are eroding world’s ancient sites

Some of the world’s most ancient buildings are being destroyed by climate change, as rising concentrations of salt in Iraq eat away at mud brick and more frequent sandstorms erode ancient wonders.

Iraq is known as the cradle of civilisation. It was here that agriculture was born, some of the world’s oldest cities were built, such as the Sumerian capital Ur, and one of the first writing systems was developed – cuneiform. The country has “tens of thousands of sites from the Palaeolithic through Islamic eras”, explained Augusta McMahon, professor of Mesopotamian archaeology at the University of Cambridge.

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At least 53 culturally important sites damaged in Ukraine – Unesco

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True list of casualties of war, which include museums, churches and a Holocaust memorial, likely to be much longer

The UN’s cultural agency has confirmed that at least 53 historical sites, religious buildings and museums have sustained damage during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“This is the latest list, but it is not exhaustive, as our experts are continuing to verify a number of reports” filed by Ukrainian authorities, a Unesco spokesperson told AFP as the body published a list of the 53 damaged sites in the north and east of the country.

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‘The knowledge of our elders’: India’s living root bridges submitted to Unesco

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Meghalaya state hopes for world heritage status for unique bridges, which can take decades to create

India’s famous living bridges – the roots of trees coaxed and stretched into the form of a suspension bridge over a river – have been submitted to Unesco’s tentative list for the coveted world heritage site status.

The mountainous state of Meghalaya in the north-east has more than 100 such bridges in 70 villages, unique structures created by a combination of nature and human ingenuity.

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Great Barrier Reef authority confirms unprecedented sixth mass coral bleaching event

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Aerial surveys show almost no reefs across a 1,200km stretch escaping the heat, prompting scientists to call for urgent action on climate crisis

The Great Barrier Reef has been hit with a sixth mass coral bleaching event, the marine park’s authority has confirmed, with aerial surveys showing almost no reefs across a 1,200km stretch escaping the heat.

The Guardian understands a United Nations mission currently under way to check the health and management of the reef will be briefed on the initial findings of the surveys as early as Friday in Townsville.

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UN mission must see coral bleaching to get ‘whole picture’ of Great Barrier Reef, experts say

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Government’s reef envoy says visiting scientists ‘have to see the good and the bad’ as widespread bleaching confirmed

A UN mission under way in Queensland to see if the Great Barrier Reef should be put on an “in danger” list will not get “the whole picture” unless it visits reefs currently experiencing coral bleaching, conservationists and the government’s own reef envoy have said.

Details of the 10-day mission, which began on Monday in Brisbane, are being kept confidential and the locations to be visited have not been formally disclosed.

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Unesco to visit Great Barrier Reef as coral bleaching risk rises

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Environment groups say visiting scientists must be given true picture of the reef, ahead of world heritage committee meeting in June

A United Nations monitoring trip to the Great Barrier Reef will land in Queensland later this month just as forecasts suggest the risk of widespread coral bleaching will be at its highest.

Unesco has confirmed two scientists will carry out the mission, requested by the Morrison government, lasting for 10 days from 21 March.

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Greta Thunberg condemns UK firm’s plans for iron mine on Sami land

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Beowulf Mining ‘hopeful’ for decision on mine in Sápmi despite opposition from activist, UN and Swedish church

A British company has fallen foul of Greta Thunberg, Unesco, Sweden’s national church, and the indigenous people in the north of the country over plans for an open-pit mine on historical Sami reindeer-herding lands.

The clamour of opposition was voiced as Beowulf Mining, headquartered in the City of London, suggested it was “hopeful” of a decision within weeks of a 5 sq mile iron-ore mine in an area where Sami communities have lived for thousands of years.

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Unesco warns of crisis in creative sector with 10m jobs lost due to pandemic

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Artists finding it harder than ever to make a living despite being part of one of the fastest growing industries

Ten million jobs in creative industries worldwide were lost in 2020 as a result of the Covid pandemic, and the increasing digitisation of cultural output means it is harder than ever for artists to make a living, a Unesco report has said.

Covid has led to “an unprecedented crisis in the cultural sector”, said Audrey Azoulay, the director-general of Unesco, the UN’s cultural body, in a foreword to the report. “All over the world, museums, cinemas, theatres and concert halls – places of creation and sharing – have closed their doors …

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Super corals: the race to save the world’s reefs from the climate crisis – in pictures

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Few corals are safe from warming oceans, a new study warns, but studies are finding surprisingly hardy corals, natural sunscreens and how coral ‘IVF’ can regrow reefs

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The world on screen: the best movies from Africa, Asia and Latin America

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From a Somali love story to a deep dive into Congolese rumba, Guardian writers pick their favourite recent world cinema releases

The Great Indian Kitchen

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New head of Unesco world heritage centre wants to put Africa on the map

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Lazare Eloundou Assomo wants to address imbalance that benefits rich nations and protect sites threatened by climate crisis and war

It covers 9 million sq miles (24m sq km) from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean and from the Sahara in the north to Cape Point in the south. And in between lie some of the world’s most ancient cultural sites and precious natural wonders.

However, despite its vast size, sub-Saharan Africa has never been proportionately represented on Unesco’s world heritage list, its 98 sites dwarfed by Europe, North America and Asia.

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