Climate change has become one of the most significant threats to people and their cultural heritage around the globe. Cultural heritage is both impacted by climate change and an important part of strategies for driving climate action. So where does the cultural heritage community stand now in terms of engaging on climate change, where do we want to go and how do we get there?  The USA’s Smithsonian Institution is putting the focus squarely on these urgent questions at a two-day long symposium entitled ‘Stemming the Tide: Global Strategies for Sustaining Cultural Heritage Through Climate Change.’

The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) will have a  strong presence at the 10th Session of the World Urban Forum (WUF10), to be held in Abu Dhabi, UAE from 8 to 13 February, 2020. Convened by UN-Habitat, the biennial World Urban Forum is the foremost international gathering for exchanging views and experiences on sustainable urbanization; this year, the WUF theme is 'Cities of opportunities - Connecting Culture and Innovation'.

ICOMOS is proud to announce its partnership with Google as well as with CyArk for the Heritage on the Edge project which aims to alert on the deterioration of the world Cultural Heritage caused by climate change.

Every year, on the occasion of the International Day of  Monuments and Sites, ICOMOS proposes a theme for the  celebrations and activities to be organised by the ICOMOS  National and International Scientific Committees and by other  organisations that wish to participate. In 2020, the theme is Shared Cultures, Shared Heritage, Shared Responsibility.

 Download the 18 April 2020 leaflet in: English - French - Spanish.

"Following the completion of the 2018/2019 World Heritage Nominations Cycle, I identified the need to increase the size of the group of Advisers working on ICOMOS World Heritage activities, specifically in order to expand and diversify its international team for the evaluation of cultural and mixed property nominations to the World Heritage List.

In armed conflicts and political upheavals since the turn of the millennium, cultural heritage has been increasingly targeted. It has been looted or deliberately destroyed, in order to finance warfare or to affect the identity and the confidence of adversaries. Museums as well as cultural sites are affected in many countries around the world.