This year, for its 42nd session, the World Heritage Committee is hosted by Bahrain in its capital city of Manama. Bahrain has long dedicated its support to the World Heritage Convention, and already chaired the Committee for its 35th session in 2011, at UNESCO Headquarters. Bahrain is also home to the Arab Regional Centre for World Heritage

The illicit trafficking of cultural objects depletes cultures of their identity and contributes to lucrative unlawful trade, which helps to finance terrorism and organized crime. It is a problem that has been growing surreptitiously across the globe. As just one example, since 2011, approximately 25 per cent of Syria’s archaeological sites have been pillaged.

Africa is the cradle of humanity. It is the world’s second largest and second most populous continent. Yet, despite the fact that African countries are keen participants in the World Heritage movement, Africa’s wealth of natural and cultural history is barely represented on the World Heritage List. A closer look at the involvement of Africa with the World Heritage Convention raises further questions about this situation.

While conflicts continue to inflict damage – much of it intentional – on heritage sites, reconstruction becomes a critical topic for discussion. The recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction of damaged sites are complex. They involve questions that go beyond authenticity and integrity.As the architect Jad Tabet says in his introductory article to this issue of World Heritage

This year, the World Heritage Committee will meet for its 41st session in the World Heritage site of the Historic Centre of Kraków. We are very pleased to be hosted by Poland, an early supporter of the World Heritage Convention whose experts even participated in the drafting of the Convention itself. Poland’s heritage sites represent many aspects of World Heritage:

2017 is the year of 82th anniversary of the Roerich Pact – the first international treaty on protection of cultural treasures of the world, which was formulated by the outstanding Russian painter, thinker and public figure, Nikolai Roerich. His whole life was dedicated to the service for common weal and peace through culture.

In this issue we are pleased to focus on the heritage of Africa and its sustainable development. The diversity and wealth of African heritage is extraordinary, from its large-scale ecosystems to modern architecture; from the memory of slavery and colonial heritage to cultural landscapes and sacred sites.

Cities are among the most quickly evolving environments on the planet. Over half of the world’s population lives in cities today, and knowing how to manage these urban areas as they grow, so that we can both cherish our history and yet help them to flourish socially, culturally and economically while they meet our needs, is a complex and monumental task.

The 40th session of the World Heritage Committee is taking place in Istanbul from 10 to 20 July 2016, and we are extremely grateful to Turkey for generously hosting this session.Turkey is a country at the crossroads between Europe and Asia, with a diverse heritage of civilizations that have been a cultural and historical influence worldwide.

From 1 to 10 September 2016, thousands of leaders and decision-makers from government, civil society, indigenous peoples, business and academia will gather together in Honolulu (Hawaii) to share ideas on how to improve the ways we manage the natural environment for human, social and economic development. Held every four years, the IUCN World Conservation Congress (WCC) focuses on joint progress in ways to protect biodiversity,