World Heritage Watch

World Heritage Watch (WHW) is an independent non-governmental organization and an international non-profit network founded in 2014. WHW is committed to the preservation of the UNESCO World Heritage worldwide. We support UNESCO and its Advisory Bodies in obtaining up-to-date, complete and accurate information about the situation of World Heritage properties but also complement their efforts for the effective implementation of the World Heritage Convention (1972). We help local people to protect their sites and to have a reasonable benefit from them. WHW is the first NGO focusing exclusively on World Heritage sites, both cultural and natural, and both inscribed and listed tentatively. We believe that the responsibility for cultural and natural heritage belongs, in the first place, to the people who live on or in the vicinity of a site. We emphasize the key role of local communities, civil society, and indigenous peoples in the preservation of World Heritage sites. Our network of active contributors is composed of 125 NGOs, 12 Indigenous Peoples Organizations, and 44 individuals, and is growing continuously. The WHW coordinating office in Berlin is in charge of, • Building the network and supporting local communities who work for World Heritage sites • Helping to bring updated and detailed information relevant to the preservation of World Heritage properties to the attention of governments and UNESCO • Organizing the WHW Forum and publishing the annual WHW Report • Campaigning the save endangered World Heritage sites • Informing the general public about developments related to the World Heritage properties.