Background

Heritage is our legacy from the past, it represents our current capital, and will be our legacy for future generations and this has been the case throughout the history of humanity. It is our social and natural imprint, which characterizes our lives, our cities and our nations. The World Heritage Convention, now in its 35th year, has been one of the most significant and successful cultural and social policies enacted throughout the world in support of preservation and promotion of Cultural Heritage.

This Convention also aligns itself with the changes in modern society and contemporary sensibilities. Four overarching strategic goals identified by the World Heritage Committee for the future are: Credibility, Conservation, Capacity-Building and Communication.

Libya, Leptis Magna, © UNESCO / G. Boccardi

These four goals sum up the challenges ahead:

• ensuring adequate representation for all types of cultural and natural heritage sites;

• promoting their effective conservation;

• raising the level of management and human skills for conservation;

• • informing the public of the achievements and challenges ahead
    

Iran (Islamique Republic of), Persepolis,
© UNESCO / F. Bandarin

These goals are closely interconnected: either they stand together or they fail as a whole.

At the confluence of these strategic goals, on one hand and sustainable local development on the other, lies the mission of training those who are concerned with the day-to-day management of these sites and the production of cultural and natural goods and services for international markets.