Nordic World Heritage Organization founded at Thingvellir
On Friday 23 September, the five Nordic World Heritage Organizations met at Thingvellir in Iceland and established a joint Nordic organization. The Nordic World Heritage Sites, a total of 40 sites, will now have a joint organization that will work with professional exchange and experience arenas.
Two representatives from each country gathered at Thingvellir. (photo: Trond Taugbøl)
"The World Heritage List now consists of 1052 sites in 165 countries. Both each site and each country need to collaborate with others on how to best preserve this heritage. We have had cooperation in the Nordic region for several decades, including through an annual Nordic World Heritage Conference, and both the sites and the state representatives have seen that this cooperation is very useful. Through a joint organization, we can achieve more systematic cooperation and build up common knowledge about the challenges that each site needs to work on in the future. This is important for Norway, both because we have knowledge to contribute and because we need to learn from the other Nordic sites," says the organization's first board chairman, John A. Bryde from Norway.
The Nordic World Heritage Association shall assist and support the implementation of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention in the Nordic countries, by stimulating cooperation, local community participation, professional exchange and experience arenas. The association's objectives are linked to UNESCO's strategy which includes credibility, conservation, capacity building, communication and local communities.