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 specific objectives of the 2009 workshop will be to:

• Review the basics of the World Heritage regime and its implications for peace, incorporating available information, updates  and current trends;
• Elucidate the underlying principles of "values-based heritage management", with a particular focus on peace building or - nurturing;
• Introduce the basics of World Heritage impact assessment;
• Examine leading assessment policies and strategies, identifying best practices and lessons learned;
• Through reality-based practical exercises, extract key concepts and common issues while developing impact assessments for given sites;
• Contribute to the development of a manual for site managers on impact assessment in World Heritage management;
• Enhance long-term peer learning and exchange among the participants.

The participants will be selected from actual or potential heritage site managers; natural/cultural conservation specialists and trainers; and decision makers and government officials within national World Heritage administrations, such as Ministries of Environment, Culture, Forestry or Tourism. A few slots will be made available to representatives of national academic institutions, think-tanks and civil society. Priority will be given to official working on World Heritage nomination projects and/or tentatively-listed World Heritage sites.

More information: http://www.unitar.org/hiroshima/unitar-activities/world-heritage-sites/2009/