Honduran indigenous and environmental organizer Berta Cáceres has been assassinated in her home. She was one of the leading organizers for indigenous land rights in Honduras.

In 1993 she co-founded the National Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH). For years the group faced a series of threats and repression.

Her death prompted international outrage at the murderous treatment of campaigners in Honduras, as well as a flood of tributes to a prominent and courageous defender of the natural world.

As reported by a number of news agencies about 72,000 hectares of World Heritage Designated forests in western Tasmania, Australia’s southernmost state have been burned by clusters of bushfires. It has also been reported that most of the bushfires were ignited by a dry lightning storm that crossed the island in mid January.

Fires have posed an enormous, ongoing challenge to the fire service, and threaten and destroy vegetation that is unique to Tasmania, including iconic alpine species such as the Pencil Pine and cushion plants, as well as temperate rainforests. In addition, fires are burning up large areas of organic soils upon which the unique Tasmanian vegetation depends as reported by the environmentalists. It is believed that it will be extremely unlikely for the burnt areas with the endemic alpine flora to fully recover given the slow growth of these species and the increased risk of subsequent fires according to Professor David Bowman, University of Tasmania.
There is a great environmental impact to the Tasmanian World Heritage Wilderness, especially fires in the Walls of Jerusalem National Park and Cradle Mountain-Lake Saint Clair National Park. Since the declaration of the World Heritage Area, fire has been carefully regulated and campfires are prohibited resulting in the reduction in the number of bushfires. Unfortunately, over the last decade there have been an increasing number of lightning storms that have ignited fires. This current fire season however, is shaping up to be extremely unusual because of the high number of fires set by lightning, their duration, and erratic and destructive behaviour that has surprised many fire fighters.

It looks like that another World heritage site has been confirmed as a filming location for Hollywood. The filming of the next Star Wars: Episode VIII is reported to begin soon and the beautiful city of Dubrovnik, Croatia is one of the filming locations. Star Wars VIII is expected to hit the big screens in December 2017.

A number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites have been chosen locations for the film Industry. Another World Heritage site, Skellig Michael, the remote Irish island recently captivated audiences in the final scene of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Another factor that draws film studios to these locations is tax incentives in European countries that have been major boost local economies.

The walled city of Dubrovnik, overlooking the cobalt waters of the Adriatic Sea on the Dalmatian coast now joins the fast-growing ranks of World Heritage Sites that have played scenic roles in major movies. Often referred to as the ‘Pearl of the Adriatic’, the old city of Dubrovnik was inscribed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1979.

It is important to note that that Dubrovnik is hardly a stranger to the film and entertainment industry. The old town of the Croatian city was also a key filming site for the scenes of the King’s Landing, the fictitious capital of the Seven Kingdoms in HBO’s medieval fantasy drama series Game of Thrones.

The city was a Mediterranean sea power in the 13th century. Historically the capital of Republic of Ragusa, the origins of Dubrovnik is disputed to this day. However, it is traditionally said to have sprung in the 7th century on the then Laus Island as a shelter for refugees from the nearby Greek colony of Epidaurum. In 1997, the city suffered major damage from an earthquake, but thankfully some of the Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque architecture of the time did not suffer any damage. In the 1970s, and in the 1990s, the city was devastated by extensive armed conflict following the fall of Yugoslavia.

It was reported yesterday that UNESCO’s Director-General, Irina Bokova, and the Italian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Paolo Gentiloni, will sign an agreement on the establishment of a Task Force of cultural heritage experts in the framework of UNESCO’s global coalition Unite for Heritage on 16 February in Rome.

The task force will create a list of experts who could be deployed for the conservation of cultural heritage affected by crises. It has been reported that this agreement is a landmark in the development of UNESCO’s global coalition Unite for Heritage, which was launched in June 2015 during the annual meeting of the World Heritage Committee in Bonn (Germany). UNESCO hopes that other countries will take similar steps to reinforce the international community’s ability to respond to the growing threats facing cultural heritage in different parts of the world.

UNESCO states that the establishment of a Task Force bringing together cultural heritage experts and the Italian Carabinieri (Italian Paramilitary) force specialized in the fight against the illicit trafficking in cultural property will enhance UNESCO’s capacity to respond to future emergencies. The establishment of this Task Force by the Italian Government directly implements the Strategy adopted by Member States at UNESCO’s General Conference last November.

The Strategy also sets out to reinforce UNESCO’s action for the protection of cultural heritage and the promotion of cultural diversity and pluralism. It calls on Member States to Contribute to the Strategy, notably through mechanisms for the rapid deployment of national expertise in emergency situations under UNESCO’s overall coordination. The reinforcement of UNESCO’s capacity to respond to current challenges builds on existing international legal instruments, notably the 1954 Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, and enhances the scope of their application.