UNESCO 'Managing Cultural World Heritage' reference manual published

A Resource Manual 'Managing Cultural World Heritage' has been published as a joint undertaking by the three Advisory Bodies of the World Heritage Convention (ICCROM, ICOMOS and IUCN) and the UNESCO World Heritage Centre as the Secretariat of the Convention.

The Manual provides guidance for States Parties and all those involved in the care of World Heritage cultural properties on how to comply with the requirements of the World Heritage Convention. It also aims to help States Parties to ensure that heritage has a dynamic role in society and harnesses, but also delivers to others, the mutual benefits that such a role can create.

This manual is intended as a tool for capacity-building for the effective management of heritage, and for World Heritage properties in particular. It is designed to help all practitioners:

to strengthen the knowledge, abilities, skills and behaviour of people with direct responsibilities for heritage conservation and management;

to improve institutional structures and processes through empowering decision-makers and policy-makers; and

to introduce a dynamic relationship between heritage and its context that will lead to greater reciprocal benefits through an inclusive approach, such that outputs and outcomes follow on a sustainable basis.

The main text of the Resource Manual explains what is involved in management for World Heritage, its context, its philosophies and its mechanisms. A set of appendices then offers guidance on how to put them into practice.