2009 - Jan - Feb - Mar - Apr - May - Jun - Jul - Aug - Sep - Oct - Nov - Dec

2008 - Jan - Feb - Mar - Apr - May - Jun - Jul - Aug - Sep - Oct - Nov - Dec

2007 - Jan - Feb - Mar - Apr - May - Jun - Jul - Aug - Sep - Oct - Nov - Dec

19 December

• World Heritage Volunteers "Patrimonito rolls up the sleeves"
  Specific international volunteer projects organised around the theme of World Heritage. The initiative aims to provide opportunities and tools to sensitize youth organisations and groups to World Heritage, operating in the sphere of non-formal education in general and using voluntary service as a method in particular. It is jointly coordinated by the UNESCO World Heritage Centre and the Coordinating Committee for International Voluntary Service (CCIVS).

15 December

• Mayors&Heritage: Regensburg, Germany
  Mr. Hans Schaidinger, Mayor of Regensburg (Germany)
  Born in 1949 in Freilassing, (member of the Christian Social Union of Bavaria), has been mayor of the city of Regensburg, Germany since 1996. He studied economics (exam 1977), is married and father of two children. Schaidinger entered service for the city of Regensburg in 1978 and was working in the areas of economy support and city development. From 1991 to 1996 he was working for the DIBAG Industriebau AG in Munich. In 1996 he was elected mayor of Regensburg.

• A triumphant encore - Galle for litterary Festival (Sri Lanka)
  The third Galle Literary Festival will be on from 28th January to 1st February, and once again it will take place in and around the world heritage site of the Galle Fort. Among this year’s list of celebrity writers who have confirmed participation are Thomas Keneally, Germaine Greer, Pico Iyer, Edna O’Brien, Romesh Gunesekera, V.V. Ganeshananthan, MJ Akbar, Giles Milton, Moses Isegawa and Michael Morpurgo. Many more authors are to be confirmed and among the celebrated will be some newcomers whose thoughts are also likely to make waves in the literary circles.

12 December

• Exhibition: Bulgarian Sites on the UNESCO World Heritage List
  From 12 to 15 December 2008 - Paris (France)
  The “Bulgarian Sites on the UNESCO World Heritage List” exhibition is a collection of 16 large-scale photographs of Bulgarian sites on the UNESCO World Heritage List by the prominent photographer Alexander Nishkov. Bulgaria has seven cultural and two natural sites inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List representing seven cultural and two natural properties. Those sites form part of the heritage without which the world would not have been the same. Only a year ago another Bulgarian masterpiece was added to the world heritage list, namely the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List, and those are the unique performances of the “Bistrishki Babi” folk music ensemble. UNESCO was also instrumental in the process of conservation and renovation of the old part of the city of Plovdiv.

10 December

• Director-General signs agreement with JAXA President to use advanced space technologies to monitor World Heritage sites
  On 2 December 2008, during an official visit to Japan (see Flash Info N°173-2008), the Director-General of UNESCO, Mr Koïchiro Matsuura, signed a cooperation Agreement with the President of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Mr Keiji Tachikawa.

8 December

• Exchange courses for Malian and French students
  As part of the Niger-Loire “governance and culture” project, students from Loire Valley universities attended three-month-long courses in the second half of 2008 covering themes or pilot initiatives linked to the project, in an exchange agreement with Malian students from the University of Bamako. The students carried out their work under the supervision of teachers from their home universities and with the support in their host country of study and project leaders assigned to the projects concerned. This work contributed to the preparation of pilot initiatives (component four of the project) and surveys (component one).

• New website for Fontevraud Abbey
  This new version of the website features a user-friendly introduction and easy access to in-depth content on the Abbey and its cultural and tourism programme for visitors. Under a scrolling banner highlighting the programme of events held at the Abbey, there are two generic headings:
  • Visit: Explore the Abbey, Prepare your visit, Come
  • Experience: Events, Arts activities, The cultural centre

and two audience-specific headings:

• Young people: Family activities, School and pre-school activities
• Business tourism: Organise your event.

On the homepage, a chronological banner allows visitors to explore nine centuries of history at Fontevraud Abbey.

• Loire Valley landscape expertise boosts urban park project in Libya
  In the framework of an agreement signed with the Libyan Engineering Consulting Office for Utilities (ECOU), 25 5th year students from the National School of Higher Studies in Nature and Landscape Architecture have been working on a 100 hectare design for an urban park for the city of Tripoli. This work forms part of the 5th year seminar on the idea of “sustainability” applied to the landscape project. The site involved took part in the project because of the particular need to take into account water resources, waste and purification management, and the use of plants suited to the specific environment. Study trips have been organised in order to supplement the research with a practical approach which will allow participants to explore the site and the culture. The final submission consisted of project hypotheses for the site involved, which provided food for thought for the Libyan partner ECOU.

• International Committee for Preservation of Lascaux. Prehistoric Paintings in Danger
  The Art of Lascaux is under attack by Fungus (Any one of the members of the thallophyte division such as mushrooms, molds and mildews, who subsist on dead or living organic matter), Bacteria (One-celled microorganism, chiefly parasitic.bacteria), and algae. The interior climate of Lascaux is being destabilized by an ill-fitted new air conditioning machine. Official bureaucracy, bad judgments and misleading statements by French authorities compound the crisis.

5 December

• Australia Helping Cambodia Protect World Heritage Icon
  The Australian Government today announced $1.13 million to assist the Cambodian Government to better protect Angkor Wat, one of the world’s most outstanding heritage sites. The Angkor World Heritage site is visited by more than two million people each year. As a significant archaeological and cultural centre containing the remains of the capitals of the Khmer Empire, it is under pressure from its high tourist traffic and the rapid development of neighbouring communities. Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts, Peter Garrett and Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance, Bob McMullan, today made the announcement as part of the Government’s efforts to assist countries in the Asia-Pacific region maintain their World Heritage sites.
  Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts: Media Release

3 December

• Exhibition: "Brasilia & Chandigarh" by Stéphane Herbert
  From 26 November to 12 December 2008. Chandigarh, India
  In the 30 photographs of the various buildings and spaces in Chandigarh and Brasilia, captured by photographer Stephane Herbert and exhibited here at the Alliance Francaise, there’s a common sight and thread — people. Be it the cathedral in Brasilia or our Open Hand, the photographs are live and living, with Stephane effortlessly connecting concrete with life. “I cannot consider architecture without people. It’s important to feel that these places are for living,’’ Stephane grew up in Le Corbusier’s building of Firminy in France in the ‘80s, so to capture Chandigarh was a natural and intrinsic desire of this photographer.

• Biodiversity Conservation in Regions of Armed Conflict: Protecting World Heritage in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
  In 2000, UNESCO and the United Nation's Foundation (UNF), launched an innovating project "Biodiversity Conservation in Regions of Armed Conflict: Conserving World Heritage sites in the Democratic Republic of Congo". This pilot project of conservation of natural heritage during conflict was launched for the initial period of four years.

• UNESCO signs partnership with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
  Dr. Keiji Tachikawa, President of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO, on 2 December signed a cooperation agreement through which JAXA will assist UNESCO by bringing the benefits of space technology to the monitoring of World Heritage sites. With this agreement JAXA joins a group of more than 50 partners, including 25 space agencies, in the "Open Initiative on the use of space technologies for World Heritage sites," initially set up by UNESCO and the European Space Agency in 2001.

• UNESCO-ICOMOS reactive monitoring mission to the World Heritage site of Edinburgh
  Experts from UNESCO's World Heritage Centre and from the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) undertook a reactive monitoring mission to examine development projects affecting the Old and New Towns of Edinburgh (United Kingdom), inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List in 1995. Undertaken at the request of the World Heritage Committee during its most recent session (Quebec City, July 2008), the mission, carried out by an expert from ICOMOS International and the Head of the Europe and North America Section of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, particularly focused on the Caltongate development, which was approved prior to this year's World Heritage Committee meeting.