Contact:
jmorgan@globalheritagefund.org or +1.650.814.2045

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Global Heritage Network (GHN) Enables Online Monitoring of Threatened Sites and Collaboration  by International Conservation Experts, Governments and Local Communities

New York, NY — (June 26, 2007) Global Heritage Fund (GHF) unveils a Google Earth mapping initiative to help save the world’s most ancient and endangered cultural heritage sites in the most impoverished countries.

As part of GHF’s ‘Saving Our Global Heritage’ campaign, Global Heritage Network (GHN) convenes online the world’s leading experts in heritage conservation, international development and sustainable tourism to plan sound solutions to save endangered global heritage sites in impoverished and war-torn regions.  With high-resolution imagery, Google Earth’s advanced satellite mapping and 3D geospatial database, the GHN layer for Google Earth enables site conservation plans, threats and mapping data to be shared in real time online, facilitating collaboration, conservation, advocacy and participation from hundreds of experts, government ministries, local citizens and communities around the world to work together and help save global heritage sites.

Every year, we are losing many of our last remaining global heritage sites in developing regions throughout Asia, the Middle East, Central Europe and the Americas. Unprecedented looting, encroachment, unchecked sprawl, neglect and deliberate destruction of major archaeological sites and ancient townscapes are overwhelming resource-poor national governments and local communities. 

 “Global Heritage Network is enabling the world community to actively help reverse the loss of some of our most important global heritage sites,” says Jeff Morgan, Executive Director of Global Heritage Fund. “Google’s advanced collaboration and mapping technologies make it possible for a non-profit like Global Heritage to have a global impact, without major investments in technology, hardware and software. In the coming decades, this will greatly benefit not only conservation, but the economic welfare of the local communities around these sites.”

Global Heritage Network (GHN) in Action
Global Heritage Network (GHN) integrates Google Earth™, Google SketchUp™, Google Scholar™, Google Groups™, Picasa™ and YouTube™ into its online initiative to support conservation and sustainable development.  More than 200 million Google Earth™ users worldwide can visualize and better understand the destruction of our global heritage currently unfolding, especially in developing countries.

1. IRAQ - GHF’s Iraq Heritage Program is using Google Earth and Google Scholar to enable teams from around the world to assist the Iraq State Board of Antiquities to scientifically map and develop conservation plans for ten of Iraq’s most endangered sites.
2. INDIA  - GHN teams in India and the U.S. have mapped all sites from the Indus Valley and Harappan civilization with direct links to Google Scholar articles and data on the Indus, providing a rich environment for advocacy and education.
3. GUATEMALA - In Mirador, located in the heart of the Maya Biosphere in northern Guatemala, real-time fire data from NASA and high-resolution mapping in Google Earth has enabled GHF to alert the government, for the first time, to proactively extinguish raging fires threatening the Cradle of Maya Civilization, saving the last intact tropical forests in Central America.  Looting reports displayed in GHN and Google Earth™ enable park rangers to focus their efforts on threatened sites and prevent further illegal activities throughout the 600,000 acre archaeological and wildlife preserve.

Saving Our Global Heritage appears in the Global Awareness folder in Google Earth and is available now. GHF’s Saving Our Global Heritage campaign is raising awareness to stimulate global action to save our endangered heritage sites in developing countries.

"At Google we see great promise in the innovative ways non-profit organizations are using products like Google Earth to further their missions and reach new audiences," said John Hanke, Director of Google Earth and Maps.  "By leveraging advanced mapping technologies to advocate for the preservation of the world's most ancient and endangered cultural assets, Global Heritage Fund has created an incredibly rich resource for conservation experts, government officials and Google Earth users alike to explore and utilize for the public good."

Global Heritage Fund (GHF) is an international conservancy that preserves and restores endangered world heritage sites in developing countries.  625 Emerson Street Suite 200, Palo Alto, CA  94301. 
www.globalheritagefund.org   Phone:  +1.650.325.7520.