New ICOMOS publication: Heritage at Risk 2006-2007: ICOMOS World Report on Monuments and Sites in Danger

Heritage at Risk 2006-2007: ICOMOS World Report on Monuments and Sites in Danger
The new World Report 2006/2007 on Monuments and Sites in Danger provides a broad spectrum of threats in the different regions of the world. Apart from 40 National Reports there are also current reports on cross-national topics, such as endangered rock paintings in North Africa and Australia, threats to vernacular architecture or to our archaeological heritage. Many of the threats discussed in the previous Heritage at Risk reports still exist, for instance dam projects in Turkey or threats to cultural heritage caused by military conflicts in Iraq and the Near East. Often conservation concerns are being sacrificed for purely commercial interests. This is being demonstrated for example by skyscraper projects in St Petersburg, Prague, Istanbul or Vienna exceeding all traditional dimensions or by the disfigurement of historic town quarters and cultural landscapes in countries such as Hungary, Romania or Moldova.

For the first time, the World Report 2006/2007 also contains a number of studies dealing with the effects of the worldwide climate change on our cultural heritage. Case studies demonstrate how different world regions, for instance the Canadian coastline, the Antarctic and Southern Europe, are already affected by climate change. Being aware of this interaction between natural and cultural heritage, ICOMOS has increased its commitment in Brazil by recently declaring the tropical rainforest of Amazonia a "monument of nature".

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