Today I was passing by Verona, the city of Juliet and Romeo, the Roman arena hosting international opera and lyrical performances and hometown of Latin love poet Catullus. When entering the city, a big brown plaque informed me of the city being awarded the World Heritage Site status by UNESCO because of its urban structure and architecture. As of 2014, there are a total of 1,007 World Heritage sites located in 161 states parties. Of the 1,007 sites, 779 are cultural, 197 are natural and 31 are mixed properties (UNESCO data). The countries with major concentration of world heritage site are Italy (50 sites), followed by China (47), Spain (44), Germany (39), France (39), Mexico (32), India (32), UK (28), Russia (26), USA (22), Australia (19) and Brazil (19). In terms of worldwide investments in culture though, the national ministries of cultures are not doing enough to show the wonders of their places and are not putting enough efforts to gather sufficient funding’s and resources to sustainably use it in cultural restorations, research and innovation to protect nature, monuments and cultural heritage.

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