Huangshan Dialogue on UNESCO Designated Places and Sustainable Development Opened in Huangshan City,

Huangshan Dialogue, which is organized by HIST (International Centre on Space Technologies for Natural and Cultural Heritage under the auspices of UNESCO) and AIR (Aerospace Information Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences) in collaboration with the World Heritage Center and the Man and the Biosphere Program of UNESCO and the Global Geopark Network supported by UNESCO, is the first ever international event that addresses the challenges and prospects for the conservation and sustainable development of UNESCO designated places. It had a successful inauguration and stimulating first day of proceedings on 27 May, 2014 at the Huangshan International Hotel, Huangshan City, China

The Mayor of the Huangshan City had special meetings to welcome senior officials from UNESCO, in particular Mr. Kishore Rao, Director of the World Heritage Centre, Mr. Han Qunli, Director of the Division of Ecological and Earth Sciences and the Secretary of the Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme and Mr. Patrick McKeever, Senior Specialist of the Global Geoparks Network. The Mayor welcomed the hosting of such international events in Huangshan, a natural and cultural heritage of spiritual significance to the Chinese people and encouraged the UNESCO representatives to consider the World Heritage site of Huangshan as a potential venue for such events in the future as well.

UNESCO designated places currently number 981 cultural and natural World Heritage sites, 621 international biosphere reserves and 100 geoparks. These areas cover hundreds of millions of hectares of land, water and oceans which are places of importance to millions of resident communities and international visitors. As the largest set of globally recognized places by UNESCO they can be ideal testing grounds for sustainable development strategies and practices within as well as outside the boundaries of these UNESCO designated places.

After an inaugural ceremony moderated by Academician, Prof. Guo Huadong, Chairman of the Huangshan Dialogue and Director of HIST and AIR, the well known IUCN Natural Heritage scholar and specialist, Dr. Jim Thorsell was awarded the honorary citizenship of Huangshan. As many as 14 keynote presentations were delivered by representatives of UNESCO, HIST and AIR, IUCN and ICOMOS, Chinese Ministries responsible for World Heritage sites, biosphere reserves and geoparks as well as individual sites such as the Wudalianchi World Biosphere Reserve. The presentations covered the problems and issues linked to: policies, management and sustainable development and application of space technologies for monitoring conservation.

More than 170 scientists, experts and managers participated in the proceedings of the first day of the Dialogue. International participants from 23 countries attended and contributed to discussions and deliberations that followed the keynote presentations. The presentations and discussions covered many areas of conservation and sustainable development of UNESCO designated and affiliated places.