UNESCO World Heritage Centre Partnership

The Secretariat has held a series of consultations with the World Heritage Centre of UNESCO focusing on development of a partnership agreement related to institutional strengthening. Among other things, the agreement is intended to enable the development of joint activities in direct response to decision VI/19 on Communication, Education and Public Awareness and its Annex on the Programme of Work for CEPA. Specifically, the areas of cooperation covered under the partnership agreement include:

1.	Collaborate in the development of an electronic portal and an alternative information dissemination mechanism towards the establishment of a global network on communication, education and public awareness, building on, where possible, existing initiatives. In particular, contribute to:

1.1	The efforts of the Secretariat to make visible the expertise in biodiversity communication and education including communication, education and public awareness training databases;

1.2	The establishment of links to the portal with other networks and Websites on communication and education;

1.3	The efforts of the Secretariat in the creation of a registry of education and communications experts;

2.	Collaborate with the Secretariat in the identification of national needs for communication, education and public awareness, exchange of knowledge and results of case studies, projects and criteria for best practices on communication, education and public awareness.

3.

Contribute to the efforts of the Secretariat in collaboration with other organizations in the development of capacity building tools and kits for mainstreaming biodiversity into school curricula, creation and delivery of appropriate training programmes including distance learning programmes, on-line training courses, manuals, twinning programmes and courses for trainers and educators.

The partnership agreement between the CBD Secretariat and the World Heritage Centre is in line with the provisions of Article 13 of the Convention on Biological Diversity that provides for the promotion of the importance and inclusion of measures required for biodiversity conservation in educational programmes as well as establishment of cooperative efforts with international organisations in developing educational and public awareness programmes, with respect to conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity.