Story | 27 Jul, 2010

World Heritage in Africa

Africa is under-represented in terms of World Heritage Sites, with only nine percent of overall sites located on the continent. Souayibou Varissou works with the African World Heritage Fund. He talks about what his organization is doing.

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Photo: IUCN

The most important job of the African World Heritage Fund is to increase the number of African sites on the World Heritage List, says Souayibou.

On a day-to-day basis the Fund's main job is training authorities and site managers on how they should apply to be candidates for World Heritage Site status. Over the past year the Fund has helped finance some 30 sites in efforts to meet the rigorous standards of the World Heritage Commission and make steps towards entering the process.

Souayibou explains that the process can be somewhat complicated.