Dear friends:

After four years of collaboration, the United Nations Foundation has decided to close the World Heritage Alliance and Friends of World Heritage.

This decision was certainly not an easy one, and came at the end of a long and thoughtful process of reviewing options and opportunities for the future.  The UN Foundation is a philanthropy that believes in supporting good ideas with a noble mission, and the World Heritage Alliance was certainly created with both in mind.  UNF deeply appreciates and acknowledges the important impact the World Heritage Alliance has had on World Heritage sites and communities in the seven countries where it operated.  The World Heritage Alliance also demonstrated the important, yet often untapped, potential for multi-sector action for conservation and sustainable development in and around World Heritage sites.

Above all, the World Heritage Alliance has given us all a glimpse into the power of the tourism industry as a force for positive change.

We will transfer appropriate training materials and other tools to the Tourism Sustainability Council for continued use. Linking with the Tourism Sustainability Council may be a logical next step for World Heritage Alliance members interested in improving their sustainability performance and receiving recognition for their work.  For more information, please see www.sustainabletourismcriteria.org.

The achievements of the World Heritage Alliance are a testament to the hard work and dedication of its members.  On behalf of the UN Foundation and the WHA secretariat, I would again like to thank you for being a part of this pioneering experiment and wish you the best success in the future.

With best wishes,

Peter DeBrine

Director, World Heritage Alliance

To learn more about the UN Foundation's work to connect people, ideas, and resources to help solve global problems, visit www.unfoundation.org