World Monuments Fund Announces 2012 Watch, Encompassing 67 Threatened Cultural Heritage Sites Across the Globe

At a press conference held at World Monuments Fund’s Empire State Building headquarters today, WMF President Bonnie Burnham announced the 2012 World Monuments Watch. Since 1996, the biennial Watch has drawn international attention to cultural-heritage sites in need of assistance, helping to save some of the world’s most treasured places. The 2012 Watch includes 67 sites, representing 41 countries and territories.

Ranging from the famous (Nasca lines and geoglyphs, Peru) to the little-known (Cour Royale at Tiébélé, Burkina Faso); from the urban (Charleston, South Carolina) to the rural (floating fishing villages of Ha. Long Bay, Viet Nam), the 2012 Watch tells compelling stories of human aspiration, imagination, and adaptation. The 67 sites vividly illustrate the ever-more pressing need to create a balance between heritage concerns and the social, economic, and environmental interests of communities around the world. Moreover, in addition to promoting community cohesion and pride, heritage preservation can have an especially positive impact on local populations in times of economic distress, for example through employment and the development of well-managed tourism