World Heritage Monitoring at Summer Palace, ChinaThe Course on Management and Monitoring of World Heritage Sites with special reference to China opened on 21 June 2016 at the Summer Palace World Heritage Site, Beijing, China. The course is organized by ICCROM together with the Chinese Academy of Cultural Heritage (CACH) at the invitation of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH).  The course goal is to benefit professionals working at World Heritage properties in China and abroad.

This course is a follow up to the successful course on “Course on Management and Monitoring of World Heritage Sites with special reference to China” organized and implemented by ICCROM in 2011 at the invitation of SACH.

The course aims to provide participants with current thinking, trends and approaches to management of cultural World Heritage properties, with special focus on monitoring. Course contents include the following themes:

  1. International context of conservation – current trends: Redefining heritage, approaches to conservation
  2. Planning and management of heritage – Review of planning for heritage and management at national/regional and site levels
  3. Issues of managing World Heritage properties, including protection of their Outstanding Universal Value
  4. Achievements, challenges and strategies for the protection of World Heritage Sites in China
  5. Monitoring
    • Monitoring at site level including monitoring devices and techniques
    • Monitoring requirements under the World Heritage Convention
    • Monitoring World Heritage in China with case studies, e.g. the Summer Palace including monitoring and warning systems

The course was opened by Yucai Gu, Deputy Director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH). The meeting was hosted by Changfa Zhan, deputy director of the Chinese Academy of Cultural Heritage (CACH). Guoding Li and Weiming Li from the Summer Palace World Heritage Site also made addresses at the opening ceremony.

Ten participants from major World Heritage Sites in China, along with participants from Albania, Belgium, Greece, Israel, Italy, Madagascar, Poland, South Africa and Zimbabwe, are attending the course. The course is principally facilitated by resource persons from China.