World Heritage in Brazil
UNESCO works under the impetus of the 1972 Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, which recognizes that some places on Earth are of "outstanding universal value" and should be part of the common heritage of humanity. World Heritage is of fundamental importance for peoples' memory, identity, creativity and the richness of cultures.
There are cultural heritage, natural heritage and mixed heritage.
Cultural Heritage
Cultural Heritage is fundamental to peoples' memory, identity and creativity and the richness of cultures. It consists of monuments, buildings or sites with exceptional and universal historical, aesthetic, archaeological, scientific, ethnological or anthropological value.
Some World Heritage sites are mixed.
Natural Heritage
Natural Heritage consists of outstanding physical, biological, and geological formations, habitats of endangered animal and plant species, and areas with scientific, conservation, or exceptional and universal aesthetic value.
World Heritage Sites in Brazil
Intangible Cultural Heritage – Safeguarding Knowledge and Traditions
In line with the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, UNESCO promotes the protection of knowledge, traditions and cultural manifestations that represent the ancestry of peoples and the legacy for present and future generations. Regarding intangible heritage, reference is made to safeguarding, which implies ensuring the conditions for the existence of manifestations.
There are 10 elements of Brazil inscribed on the Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists. Here are the elements and their years of inscription:
- Traditional ways of making Artisan Minas Cheese - 2024
- Cultural Complex of Bumba-meu-boi from Maranhão - 2019
- Capoeira Circle - 2014
- CÃrio de Nazaré (The Taper of Our Lady of Nazareth) in the city of Belém, Pará - 2013
- Frevo, performing arts of the Carnival of Recife - 2012
- Call for projects of the National Programme of Intangible Heritage - 2011
- Fandango's Living Museum - 2011
- Yaokwa, the Enawene Nawe people's ritual for the maintenance of social and cosmic order - 2011
- Oral and graphic expressions of the Wajapi - 2008
- Samba de Roda of the Recôncavo of Bahia - 2008
Conservation of Heritage Sites in Brazil
Significant historical urban sites, some of which have been registered as World Heritage sites, call for an urgent managerial strategy not only capable of handling the issue of conservation but, most of all, including them on the Brazilian Development agenda and thus avoiding their becoming even more endangered than they are at present.
Investments have been made in urban sites of cultural value to preserve them as cultural heritage sites. Still, even if we consider the efforts made by partnerships, especially with the Brazilian government and , it has not yet achieved a management strategy to expedite such areas and ensure their sustainability.
UNESCO Brasilia offers support and collaborations with federal, state and local governments and civil society in implementing the Convention on World Cultural and Natural Heritage ratified by Brazil in September 1977. UNESCO in Brazil maintains close relations with the World Heritage Centre (WHC), aiming to implement technical cooperation actions with various administrative units responsible for the Brazilian World Heritage sites.
