Story | 23 Jun, 2009

African World Heritage needs strong international support

Countries and international orgnisations need to join efforts when dealing with increasing threats to the African World Heritage sites in danger, according to IUCN.

Photo: IUCN/Richard Emslie

The progress report on the African World Heritage Fund was discussed yesterday at the World Heritage Committee meeting in Seville.

Out of the 13 World Heritage sites currently on the danger list, 11 are in Africa.

"The two IUCN regional offices in Africa the Global Programme are working closely with the World HeritageFund on developing additional areas of support to coutries, such as capacity building and assessing management effectiveness of the sites," said Ali Kaka, IUCN Regional Director for East and Souther Africa.

With the collaboration of two protected areas training centres in Africa, Mweka in Tanzania and Garouva in Cameroon, the African World Heritage Fund (AWHF) and IUCN are currently working on developing and enhancing the capacities of site managers in Africa.

"IUCN wants to invite the AWHF to make further use of the wide network of local expertise on Protected Area management available within the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas, the Speices Survival Commission and our country offices and capacity around the continent, " Mr Kaka added.