Our Vanishing Heritage

Subsurface investigations at the Cyrene Amphitheatre, Cyrene, Libya.

Focus on the Developing World
• Overview
• Poverty Facts
• Global Priorities

Preservation by Design ®

The record of human civilization - our global heritage - is vanishing before our eyes. Global Heritage Fund is driving the development of a new study – Saving Our Vanishing Heritage: Destruction and Loss in the 21st Century – to reveal that archaeological and heritage sites worldwide - primarily in developing regions - have suffered an unprecedented rate of damage and loss in this past decade.  

New solutions and proven models need to be shared. Heritage destruction in the developing world needs to be brought to the forefront of global discourse with the United Nations community, national governments, philanthropists, foundations and corporations to achieve breakthroughs for heritage conservation in the poorest countries.

The world faces unprecedented environmental and social challenges. Devastating poverty confronts the human population as it swells beyond 6.6 billion and the gap between rich and poor widens. Simultaneously, mega-city development and mass tourism threaten to destroy many of our most important world heritage sites. 

These challenges call for innovation and new funding on an unprecedented scale, and Global Heritage Fund is playing a major leadership role in saving our vanishing heritage.