A/75/298 and rising sea levels. Underwater heritage may be harmed by changing sea currents. 54 Globally, archives and libraries, great repositories of human knowledge, culture and history are at risk as well. 55 31. Through its reactive monitoring process, established under the 1972 UNESCO World Heritage Convention, the World Heritage Centre provides reports to the intergovernmental World Heritage Committee on world heritage sites impacted by climate change, in order to provide the best advice possible to States Partie s, and authorities, and establish the most appropriate mitigation measures. The Centre collects data on climate change impacts on World Heritage properties, and reports, together with the advisory bodies, to the World Heritage Committee on the most pressing cases. 56 The World Heritage Committee is currently updating its policy document on the impacts of climate change on World Heritage properties, which will be presented to the forty-fourth session of the Committee. 57 “The relevance of the processes of the World Heritage Convention such as nominations, periodic reporting and reactive monitoring must be reviewed and suitably adjusted.” 58 UNESCO should be fully resourced to address these urgent issues; and States parties to the 1972 Convention should do more to comply with its provisions and related guidelines. The project of creating an adequately funded climate vulnerability index for world heritage properties, as proposed by a number of organizations, should be given serious consideration. 32. The management plans of all sites potentially threatened by climate change should be updated to ensure sustainable conservation. Appropriate monitoring and vulnerability assessment processes must be undertaken. Potential mitigation measures at specific sites, and across the network of world heritage sites, should also be considered. The importance of climate change threats also justifies the implementation of appropriately tailored risk-preparedness measures. Site-specific assessment, mitigation and adaptation, as well as broader regional and transboundary strategies to tackle the vulnerability of all sites within larger landscapes and seascapes are needed. 33. A holistic assessment of heritage impacts is essential. Not only tangible and natural heritage but also “practice and transmission of a host of rich intangible cultural heritage practices – from oral traditions, to performing arts, social practices, rituals, festive events, traditional craftsmanship, and interactions and relationships with nature” are at risk. 59 Extreme weather events will disrupt not just daily life, but also sustained traditions and events, such as Mardi Gras or Lunar New Year festival. Tangible, intangible and natural heritage are largely porous categories, and human beings enjoy their related rights across them, often in a holistic way. The effects should also be assessed holistically. 34. For instance, the changing availability of plant and animal species will lead to the loss of ecological knowledge and related language vital for the transmiss ion of living heritage concerning food and medicinal plants, such as the Andean world view of the Kallawaya, which is on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Indigenous peoples and others living in vulnerable environments, such as small islands, high-altitude zones, desert margins, the Sahel __________________ 54 55 56 57 58 59 10/23 See UNESCO, Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage (2001). See contribution by International Council on Archive s, section on archives and human rights. See http://whc.unesco.org/en/soc/?action=list&id_threats=130%2C129%2C128%2C127%2C24 4%2C126%2C131. See contribution by UNESCO. Climate Change and World Heritage, p. 10. See contribution by UNESCO. 20-10595