RIYADH: Saudi Arabia will host the fifth World Heritage Site Managers’ Forum under the theme “Managing World Heritage for the Next 50 Years.” The forum will be held in a hybrid format, with three online sessions between June and July 2023, and an in-person event in Riyadh from Sept. 10-16, 2023. The summit will run concurrently with the extended 45th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, which will be hosted by Saudi Arabia in September after the country was unanimously voted committee chair. The decision was made at the 18th extraordinary meeting of the World Heritage Committee in Paris, which also voted to add historic sites in Yemen, Lebanon and Ukraine to UNESCO’s List of World Heritage in Danger. Riyadh, home to the World Heritage Site At-Turaif, will host the committee from Sept. 10-25. The event will be chaired by Princess Haifa bint Abdulaziz Al-Mogrin, Saudi Arabia’s permanent representative to UNESCO, and chairperson of the organization’s programs and external relations committee. The forum will bring together World Heritage site managers from around the globe, helping participants to expand their networks and gain insight at an international level. Achievements of the past 50 years will be reviewed and the growing challenges facing site managers examined. Discussions will tackle topics including the achievements of the World Heritage Convention, enhancing resilience and sustainability, risk management, climate change, and digital technologies for monitoring and protecting UNESCO World Heritage sites. Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Culture has provided an online registration platform for those seeking to participate. Applications can be submitted at https://whc.unesco.org/en/whsmf23/ by May 7, 2023.