Currently, there are nearly 1,100 natural, cultural, and mixed (i.e. natural and cultural) World Heritage Sites across the globe. Natural World Heritage Sites, in particular, provide economic, social and environmental benefits. They provide vital resources such as food, fuel and water; perform environmental services such as stabilising soils, preventing floods, and capturing carbon; and contribute significantly to economies through jobs, tourism, recreation, and exports.
However, almost half of natural World Heritage Sites are threatened by harmful industrial activities such as exploring and extracting oil, gas and minerals; illegal logging; overfishing; unsustainable use of water; and large-scale infrastructure projects such as dams, pipelines, roads, and mega ports. UNEP FI’s Principles for Sustainable Insurance in partnership with WWF and UNESCO have launched the first-ever global insurance industry statement of commitment to protect the value of these outstanding sites.
The insurance industry statement is a commitment to take action. It covers the insurance industry’s risk management, insurance and investment activities and commits signatories to take various actions in order to prevent or reduce the risk of insuring and investing in companies or projects whose activities could damage World Heritage Sites.
Join a webinar on Thursday 13 September to find out more about the aims of the statement of commitment, and best practices across risk management, insurance and investment, including case studies and the next activities for this initiative.
We will hold two 90-minute webinars to cater to different time zones – please select the time that works best for your schedule:
Webinar 1: Thursday, 13 September (Africa/Asia/Europe/Oceania)
• 9:00 to 10.30am Central European Summer Time
• Registration link: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/3389052571025760003
• Webinar ID: 209-322-715
Webinar 2: Thursday, 13 September (Africa/Americas/Europe)
• 3:00 to 4.30pm Central European Summer Time
• Registration link: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/7501566907512714499
• Webinar ID: 419-457-483
After registering, you’ll receive a confirmation e-mail with info on how join the webinar.
The statement can be signed as a “signatory company” by insurance and reinsurance companies, intermediaries, and other companies and organisations that provide insurance and reinsurance products or services. It can also be signed as “supporting institution” by insurance and reinsurance associations, institutes and initiatives; insurance regulatory and supervisory authorities; civil society organisations; academic institutions; and other institutions that work with the insurance industry. The cut-off date to become a founding signatory is 15 September 2018.
For more info, see the project website: staging.unepfi.org/psi/world-heritage
For any questions, please e-mail the project team at psi-world-heritage@unepfi.org.