UNESCO, Egypt and Sudan have started commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Nubia Campaign, a defining example of international solidarity when countries understood the universal nature of heritage and the universal importance of its conservation.

The International Workshop and Expert Meeting "Starlight Reserves and World Heritage - scientific cultural and environmental values", was held in Fuerteventura, Spain, from 10-11 March 2009.

The sixth workshop of the UNITAR Series on the Management and Conservation of World Heritage Sites will be organized from 19 to 24 April 2009 in Hiroshima, Japan, focusing on issues surrounding the World Heritage Impact Assessment.

The latest version of the World Heritage map, produced by the UNESCO World Heritage Centre and National Geographic Maps with support from the United Nations Foundation, can now be ordered for a modest fee from the World Heritage Centre website. All proceeds from sales of the maps will go toward the preservation and promotion of World Heritage sites.

The documents for the nomination "Tajik national park (Mountains of the Pamir)" have been submitted to the UNESCO World Heritage Centre. The preparation of the nomination was completed during the working visit of the expert of the Natural Heritage Protection Fund to Dushanbe on 20-23 January. The "Tajik national park" may become the first site of Tajikistan on the World Heritage List.

The nomination of the "The Putorana Plateau" (Putoransky State Nature Reserve) has been submitted to the UNESCO World Heritage Centre after the documents were corrected to meet the requirements set out in the Decision of the 32nd session of the World Heritage Committee 32 COM 8B.13.

A working meeting "Nomination and management of the serial transnational World Heritage properties" took place at the International Academy for Nature Conservation on the isle of Vilm in Germany.

The set of documents compiled by the Institute of mines of the Ural department of the Russian Academy of Sciences contains the nomination dossier and the application to suggest the historical-natural complex "The Ice Mountain and the Kungurskaya Ice Cave" for the Tentative List of the Russian Federation. In the near future another candidate for the status of the World Heritage property may be added to the Tentative List for the Russian Federation, which at present features 7 natural and 2 mixed properties.

In the framework of the UNDP/GEF project "Sustainable preservation of the bio-diversity: four Specially Protected Nature Areas in the Kamchatka region of the Russian Federation" a steering meeting was held on 28 October in Elisovo to work out the management plans for the Kronotsky Reserve and the South Kamchatka Federal Preserve, which make part of the World Heritage site Volcanoes of Kamchatka.

The seminar was held on October 16-17 in the Tungur settlement (Belukha Natural Park, Altai Republic). It marked the 10th anniversary of the inscription of the Golden Mountains of Altai natural site on to the World Heritage List.