This volume has been published as a milestone, accessible to the wider public, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the World Heritage Convention. World Heritage: Benefits Beyond Borders is a thematic collection of case studies of World Heritage sites providing an understanding of their outstanding universal value in the context of sustainable development.

The publication is cross-disciplinary in scope, a meeting point for natural and social scientists, researchers and practitioners, professionals and community representatives. The twenty-six case studies represent a global spread of constructive and engaging examples. They have been selected on the principle of representativeness: outstanding universal value; inscription criteria; economic, social and environmental sustainability; inscriptions as natural, cultural and mixed sites; landscape as well as scientific and industrial heritage; and a regional balance of examples from around the world taking into consideration environmental, linguistic and cultural diversity.

Each case study assesses what is important for sustainable development with regard to the World Heritage site concerned; the management framework required for ensuring and enabling sustainable development and community engagement; benefits to local communities and ecosystems; lessons for sharing with other World Heritage sites; and the anticipated way forward in bringing together local and neighbouring communities through the environmental, economic and social dimensions of sustainability. As far as possible, evidencebased benefits are presented by the authors, who have written in the spirit of the call for transformations by the UNESCO Director-General: ‘integrated cooperation mechanisms and more participatory governance structures for culture’, ‘deeper statistical understanding of the importance of the cultural sector to development’ and ‘greater awareness-raising about the cultural dimension of development’.