More than 3,000 Aboriginal sites have lost registration status as part of sweeping changes in classifications in the Aboriginal Heritage Register.
Domes of Purnululu, Western Australia. Pic: David Denicolò
More than 3,000 Aboriginal heritage sites in Western Australia have lost registration status as part of sweeping changes in classifications in the Aboriginal Heritage Register. That needs to change.
The 11 official languages of South Africa on display at the Constitutional Court.
Flickr
In the past few years, many South Africans have come to associate Heritage Day with a good opportunity to have a barbeque, known locally as a braai. But the day is meant for so much more than that.
From the unique dwellings of Omigachi in Japan to the ruined temples of Angkor, Cambodia, UNESCO status brings great value. Here’s why Edinburgh needs to take its status more seriously.
The World Heritage Committee’s deliberations involved far more than a simple tick for the Great Barrier Reef.
Jon Day
Australia was spared the ignominy of having the Great Barrier Reef listed as officially in danger. But comments from member countries of the World Heritage Committee show the world is still worried about it.
It’s still too early to declare that it’s blue skies for the Great Barrier Reef.
Underwater Earth/Catlin Seaview Survey/Wikimedia Commons
Whether it’s on the official “in danger” list or not, the Great Barrier Reef is clearly under threat. UNESCO has placed its faith in Australia, but without urgent action the problems will not go away.
Australia has persuaded UNESCO it has a plan to save the Great Barrier Reef - now the policies and funds must materialise.
AAP Image/Tourism and Events Queensland
UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee has spared Australia’s blushes by opting not to list the Great Barrier Reef as ‘in danger’. But it has also demanded that Australia make good on its plans to save it.
A traditional clay minaret stands in the Malian city of Timbuktu. Structures such as these are being destroyed as a result of conflict.
Adama Diarra/Reuters
Africa is losing rich heritage and historical structures through conflict.
When World Heritage sites are under threat, like Florida’s Everglades National Park, they are added to the List of World Heritage in Danger.
Flickr/slack12
The United Nations is set to decide whether to add the Great Barrier Reef to the List of World Heritage in Danger. But what is the list, and what does it mean for the places that are on it?
The mountain rainforests of Australia’s Wet Tropics are extremely vulnerable to climate change.
kara brugman/Flickr
Edinburgh, recently voted fourth-most-beautiful city in the world, is one of many having problems with the coveted UNESCO status. It’s time for change.
Turtles are among the species that could be harmed by dredging, even under the government’s new dredge dumping rules.
AAP Image/University of QLD
The Australian government’s latest report on the Great Barrier Reef, submitted to the UNESCO World Heritage Centre last Friday, has been carefully crafted and word-smithed, with many of its claims supported…
In this January 2015 photograph, a man walks through the ruins of Old Aleppo, a designated World Heritage site.
Hosam Katan/Reuters
Recently in Aleppo, Syria, the Jabha Shamiya militia has started carrying out a new urban warfare strategy: tunnel bombing. Aside from the human damage wrought by this tactic, it is also extremely damaging…
The potential rezoning of Tasmania’s Wilderness World Heritage Area for tourism development begs the question: just what is wilderness, and what is it good for?
The Wilderness Society/AAP
The Tasmanian government this month released a draft of the revised management plan for the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, which proposes rezoning certain areas from “wilderness zones” to “remote…
Over the past three years, there’s been increasing concern over the future of the Great Barrier Reef.
american_rugbier/Flickr
The Australian government has stepped up its campaign this month to prevent the Great Barrier Reef being listed as a World Heritage site “in danger” at international meetings next year. The World Heritage…
Flying over Green Island on the Great Barrier Reef.
Kiyo/Flickr
The Great Barrier Reef is in trouble, and a draft government plan to ensure its survival does not go far enough. A number of submissions including those from the Australian Academy of Science and Environmental…
Shark Bay is one of Australia’s 19 World Heritage Areas, home to dolphins, dugongs, and sharks.
Matthew Fraser
In the summer of 2010-2011 Western Australia experienced an unprecedented heatwave — but not on land. Between December 2010 and April 2011, sea temperatures off the WA coast reached 3C above average, and…
Tony Abbott may have planted a few trees, but he’s also sought to bury many of Australia’s environmental safeguards.
Britta Campion/AAPImage
Before the 2013 election, Tony Abbott gave us fair warning that he would turn the clock back on the environment. As promised, his government has devoted itself to short-term economics and the sort of hardline…
Dredging at the port of Gladstone.
Greens MPs/Flickr
Tonight’s Four Corners on ABC investigates dredging at ports on the Great Barrier Reef, including claims that the federal government is reportedly seeking alternatives to dumping dredge spoil at sea at…
The Ranger uranium mine, inside the World Heritage-listed Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory.
AAP Image/Tara Ravens
As of today, Queensland has lifted a 32-year ban on uranium mining. That decision was taken within months of the 2012 state election, despite Premier Campbell Newman’s pre-election promise not to restart…
The list of the natural world’s most extraordinary places, UNESCO’s World Heritage List, gained its 1,000th entry this week with the addition of the Okavango Delta in northern Botswana. To be chosen for…
Senior Lecturer in Architectural HIstory and Theory, UNSW & Honorary Research Fellow, Australian Centre for Architectural History, Urban and Cultural Heritage (ACAHUCH), UNSW Sydney