Establishing a Permanent World Heritage Network

A strategically coordinated and sophisticated global network that brings together sympathetic Governments, influential and capable environmental NGO’s and relevant technical and legal experts to re-focus the Committee on its mission, improve protection of World Heritage sites and strengthen the Convention and its governance processes is urgently needed.

The goal in the short term needs to be to halt the inexorable decline in standards leading to degradation of some World Heritage sites. In the medium term we need to strengthen protection of World Heritage sites with demonstrable improvements in management and on ground outcomes.

At present there is little capacity to hold governments to account.