Participation at the World Heritage Site Managers’ Forum 2021
The 4th edition of the World Heritage Site Managers’ Forum on the theme “World Heritage Governance – Being prepared to manage change and continuity” was held online from 7 to 13 July 2021.
The World Heritage Site Managers’ Forum was established during the 41st session of the World Heritage Committee in 2017, becoming one of its most important regular events. The main objective of the Forum is to provide site managers with an opportunity to network internationally, promote discussion and exchange of ideas and best practices.
This year’s Forum brought together over 90 participants from 85 World Heritage sites and was organised together with the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, the Advisory Bodies (ICCROM, IUCN and ICOMOS), heritage experts and representatives of various Chinese heritage institutions. Several topics were discussed, mainly focused on strengthening inclusive and equitable governance arrangements for the effective management of World Heritage Listed sites. Over the course of six days, participants discussed who should be involved in the different stages of management and decision-making processes, looking at the wide range of communities and stakeholders.
Carlo Francini, as site manager of the Historic Centre of Florence participated in the session of 13 July on the theme “Sustainable Tourism – engaging with stakeholders” bringing a contribution on the theme of sustainable tourism, its relationship with climate change, as well as the role of the site manager relating to these topics. Furthermore, during the presentation the preparatory document for the “2021 Management and Sustainability Plan” was introduced, which is the second update of the main strategic management tool for the World Heritage Site developed also in the context of the European project AtlaS.WH.
A video and the Forum statement are available at the following link: https://whc.unesco.org/en/whsmf2021/
For more information on the event: https://www.44whcfuzhou2021.cn/en/manager.html
