Kathmandu Symposium on the "Protecting World Cultural Heritage Sites and Their Historic Urban Environment from Earthquakes" was held in Kathmandu, Nepal on from 16 to 19 November 2008. This was organized in cooperation with the UNESCO Kathamandu office and the Institute of Engineering, Tribhuvan University, and supported by the Embassy of Japan in Nepal.

World Cultural Heritage Sites in historic urban areas located in earthquake zones are becoming increasingly vulnerable to earthquakes due to factors such as fast pace of urbanization and population growth. The cases of World Heritage Monument Zones in Kathmandu Valley in Nepal and World Heritage Sites of Kyoto in Japan illustrate the issue at hand. The situation is alarming since both in Kathmandu and Kyoto, a serious earthquake is expected in the near future. If we do not take immediate measures to protect our cultural heritage from impending earthquakes, then we may lose these irreplaceable cultural resources.

In terms of this, participants from the world presented about disaster reduction measures and approaches of cultural heritage in historic urban areas through the 5 sessions of the symposium. In the working group session, the research needs and international cooperation of disaster reduction of cultural heritage in historic urban from earthquakes were discussed. Based on the outcomes of the discussion, Kathmandu Recommendations was adopted.

International Tokyo Symposium "How to Promote Risk Management for World Cultural Heritage Sites in Earthquake Zones" was held at the U Thant Hall of the United Nations University (Aoyama, Tokyo) on the 17th November 2008, as part of the international activities by Global COE for Education, Research and Development of Strategy on Disaster Mitigation of Cultural Heritage and Historic Cities.

At present, there are 878 World Heritage Sites in total, of which 679 are cultural heritage sites, including those inscribed on the World Heritage list by the World Heritage Committee in Quebec City in July 2008. However, many of them are exposed to several risks, which come from man-made factors such as conflicts, rapid urbanization or concentration of population. Natural hazards such as earthquakes greatly increase the impact of these risks. Earthquake zones are spread all over the world. Half of World Cultural Heritage Sites are located in these areas, especially in the Asia-Pacific, Latin America, the Caribbean and Southern Europe. As it is clear from the figure, the Japanese Archipelago is entirely on the Circum-Pacific Earthquake Zones, and Bam and its Cultural Landscape, which were collapsed due to the earthquake that attacked Iran with the magnitude of 6.3 in 2003, as well as Dujiangyan, China, which was severely damaged by the earthquake in May 2008, are both in earthquake zones. The goal of this symposium was that experts on cultural heritage and disaster mitigation from different regions of the world, where there are always disaster risks, could report their emergent situations, and that each country's government and universities could search for possible countermeasures they can take together with UNESCO.

Several case studies were reported in the first section of the symposium. Through the panel discussion in the second section, the emergent situations surrounding cultural heritage sites and the disaster management plans were reported, and the roles of governments and universities were discussed. Based on the outcomes of the discussion, in the third section "Tokyo Declaration for the Protection of World Cultural Heritage from Seismic Disasters" was adopted.

Besides, this symposium (mainly the panel discussion) was telecasted for about an hour in the NHK's Sunday Forum in the evening of 25 January 2009.

International Forum on Disaster Mitigation for Cultural Heritage 2008 organized by Global COE program of Ritsumeikan University and Research Center of Disaster Mitigation for Urban Cultural Heritage, was held at Hotel Granvia Kyoto on the 14th November 2008. This forum's aim was to think together with researchers of universities and administrative organizations, about what we can and what universities can for protecting the world heritage site, "Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto", from disasters such as earthquakes and fires, and handing it down for future generations long.

In the first section, Ms. Marielle Richon (Programme Specialist, UNESCO World Heritage Centre) and Pf. Toki (Director, Research Center of Disaster Mitigation of Urban Cultural Heritage, Ritsumeikan University, Japan) gave a keynote speech titled "Preservation of The World Heritage Site 'Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto' and Forum UNESCO: Heritage and University" followed by reports and a panel discussion with four professionals, which focused on the themes below.

In the second section, the completion certificates were issued for the participants of the UNESCO Chair program, the International Training Course on Disaster Risk Management of Cultural Heritage 2008, and they reported the outcomes of the two week training program. The participants in 2008 were a professional of cultural heritage conservation and a professional of disaster reduction from each of Nepal, Serbia, Bhutan, Iran and Taiwan, and the total number of them was nine. Possible disaster scenarios and disaster management plans for Nepal's world heritage site, the Kathmandu Valley, Belgrade Fortress in Serbia, Tashichhodzong in Bhutan, Bam and its Cultural Landscape in Iran and Saint Domingo Castle and its surrounding area in Taiwan had been made beforehand, and the entire processes were presented during the session.

This forum was the first step of forming a platform for building up an interactive network among universities, whose theme is "Sustainable Preservation and Utilization of World Heritage in Historic Cities". On the basis of this, Ritsumeikan University is going to compose a network, through concluding MOU with foreign universities, for developing studies in common issues.