Headlines in Europe have celebrated Carnac and the Morbihan coast’s recent inscription as UNESCO World Heritage sites. But a quieter, arguably more significant victory was unfolding at the same time in Madagascar. Earlier this month, the island nation had its Atsinanana rainforests removed from UNESCO’s List of World Heritage in Danger, ending a nearly two-decade struggle and marking notable progress in environmental governance.

In a world where international accolades are often seen as the ultimate goal, Madagascar’s achievement shows that sometimes the most important recognition comes from overcoming deep-rooted challenges rather than collecting new honours.

A long road to safety

The six rainforests of Atsinanana (Marojejy, Masoala, Zahamena, Ranomafana, Andringitra, and Andohahela) were first designated a World Heritage site in 2007 because of their extraordinary biodiversity and high number of endemic species. They are home to endangered lemurs, rare amphibians and birds, and unique flora found nowhere else on Earth. But by 2010, the site had been placed on the “in danger” list, after illegal logging surged in the aftermath of political instability. Rosewood and ebony, highly prized on international markets, were extracted at unsustainable rates. Protected areas were raided; wildlife trafficking increased, and enforcement systems collapsed.

Being on the World Heritage list is usually framed as a badge of honour, but obtaining the “in danger” designation is very different. It is a warning, indicating a systemic failure of enforcement and stewardship. For countries already facing economic and political stress, this label can damage reputations, discourage investment, and undermine domestic confidence.

Getting a site removed from the danger list is not a simple matter of drafting a better policy or running a few workshops. It requires sustained political commitment, long-term planning, and the ability to rebuild local trust, something which makes Madagascar’s achievement all the more striking.

Strong national leadership

While international support from partners such as UNESCO and the World Bank was important, the core driver of Madagascar’s recovery effort was national resolve. The Ministry of the Environment and Sustainable Development (MEDD), Madagascar National Parks, and local authorities introduced stronger frameworks to control forest exploitation. Protected area surveillance was increased, anti-poaching patrols were restructured, and penalties for illegal logging were made clearer and more enforceable.

Just as importantly, the strategy extended beyond forest boundaries. The government invested in reforestation and ecological restoration, with satellite data showing significant gains in forest cover. But it also focused on tackling the social and economic drivers of environmental degradation. In rural communities near the protected areas, youth were trained in ecotourism, fish farming, and sustainable agriculture. Infrastructure investments — including a new dam and irrigation systems — enabled triple harvests on rehabilitated land, improving livelihoods and easing pressure on forests.

At the international level, Madagascar’s diplomatic and technical coordination was notable. The Ministry of Culture helped prepare the case file submitted to UNESCO, while the Ministry of Foreign Affairs activated diplomatic channels in support of the outcome. And at the 47th UNESCO General Assembly in Paris, a high-level Malagasy delegation, led by Minister Max Andonirina Fontaine, presented the government’s results with evidence of on-the-ground progress.

The initiative is part of a broader vision set out by President Andry Rajoelina, who has made the protection of Madagascar’s natural heritage and biodiversity a national priority. His administration has increasingly linked environmental governance to national development, positioning conservation as a pillar of economic recovery and international credibility.

Speaking after the decision, Max Fontaine said, “For Madagascar, this decision is more than a technical or political ruling. It represents a true acknowledgment of the government’s efforts over the past decade. First and foremost, it began with political will at the highest level. President Andry Rajoelina prioritized biodiversity conservation. This commitment then translated into strategy, and that strategy into concrete actions… It has been a long journey, requiring genuine political courage. That is why we can now speak of recognition; it is a huge relief for the Malagasy government.”

The removal from the danger list also carries geopolitical weight. It signals to funders and NGOs that Madagascar can deliver. The country has often struggled to attract long-term investment in environmental projects–but this success may help reframe perceptions, showing that national authorities are capable of leading complex, multi-stakeholder environmental initiatives — a point President Rajoelina and his ministers have been keen to emphasize.

A broader movement

Madagascar was not alone. In the same session, UNESCO removed two other African sites from the danger list — Abu Mena in Egypt and the Old Town of Ghadamès in Libya. Each case differs — Abu Mena faced threats from rising groundwater, and Ghadamès from conflict and climate — but together they send a powerful signal. At a time when heritage sites in Africa and the Middle East are under siege from war, urban sprawl, and environmental shocks, these removals show that progress is possible when political will and international cooperation align.

The shift is also part of a broader evolution within UNESCO. Director-General Audrey Azoulay called the removals a “great victory,” noting that the organisation is placing special emphasis on heritage protection in Africa — and that those efforts are beginning to deliver results.

For African nations often treated as passive recipients of aid or attention, this moment reframes the narrative. These are not stories of external rescue, but of domestic capacity, policy innovation, and resilience.

Important implications

UNESCO designations are more than symbolic. They influence tourism flows, attract development aid, shape national identities, and drive local economic opportunities. According to UNESCO data, World Heritage status can boost tourism by up to 20%, especially in ecologically unique areas. In Madagascar, where ecotourism is one of the country’s most promising but underdeveloped sectors, the potential is considerable.

President Andry Rajoelina’s administration has emphasized this point repeatedly: heritage protection must also create jobs and strengthen local economies. The removal of Atsinanana from the danger list is expected to help Madagascar attract new partnerships, boost tourism revenues, and build stronger links between conservation and community development. For a country where over 75% of the population lives on less than $2 a day, this linkage is critical.

Madagascar’s achievement is not just about restoring a forest. It is about proving that conservation can be part of a national growth strategy. Madagascar has done what few countries in its position have managed to do: reverse environmental decline, regain credibility, and reclaim agency over its environmental narrative.

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Siza has been visiting Alhambra since he was a youngster and developed a lifelong fascination with the place. In addition to the remarkable architecture set high on a hill overlooking the Andalusian city, the architect seeks to emulate the light and shadow play evident throughout the palace.

Over the years he has compiled various sketches, models, drawings and photographs of the palace (we have a few too from a fairly recent visit – see those here.) This collection, along with renders of a new entrance gate and visitor center, called “Visions of the Alhambra” will soon be on display in Berlin.

In addition to showcasing Siza’s lifelong devotion to the magnificent Moorish design, the exhibition will present a new way to visit the site. At is it currently set up, it’s difficult to know where to enter, and visitors – up to 8,000 per day, must stand in two long lines: first to get tickets (which are allocated in certain time slots) and then to actually get into the building.

Siza aims to improve this system with a new entrance gate that will be partially buried to reveal the scale of the architecture, as Designboom puts it, through “spatial sequencing and topographical systemization.”

Related: Morocco’s Berbers had water management sorted

Light wells placed throughout will ensure plenty of natural light reaches most areas, though – in keeping with the Alhambra’s playful lighting – they will not flood the building. Instead, visitors will be introduced to areas of partial shade and partial light and near complete light or darkness, to authenticate the preview experience as much as possible.

After proceeding through the new entrance center, visitors will come upon a courtyard outside which then leads to an auditorium and a central plaza, where water is channeled “in a continuous cycle of repetition.”

Aedes Architecture Forum Berlin and the Council of the Alhambra & Generalife will present the exhibition at Aedes Pfefferberg in Berlin between March 22 and May 8, 2014; thereafter, it will be permanently displayed the heritage site starting in Spring 2015.

Images © Álvaro Siza Vieira + Juan Domingo Santos / 3D rendering – LT studios

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Water from natural springs burbles in the ancient Roman stone aqueduct as it carries water downward to this village’s ancient terraces. Palestinian families grow olives, cabbage and eggplant today the same way they did more than 2,000 years ago.

“Each family here gets water one day a week, but the week lasts eight days since there are eight families,” Kayan Manasra, the Palestinian Coordinator of Friends of the Earth Middle East (FOEME), a joint Israeli-Palestinian-Jordanian NGO, told The Media Line. “There are 13 springs and seven are still in use. We farm here the same way we are doing for thousands of years.”

Battir, with its 6,000 residents is in Area B of the West Bank, meaning that Palestinians provide municipal services such as garbage pickup but Israel is responsible for security.

Most crops are grown on terraces — small plots surrounded by stone walls on the slopes of the hill. Conservationists say the farming methods are the same as those used in ancient times. Residents here are hoping that the World Heritage Committee of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) will designate the village a World Heritage Site. Earlier this year, UNESCO gave Battir the Melina Mercouri International Prize for the Safeguarding and Management of Cultural Landscapes.

Battir also has a Jewish connection. Once a Jewish village, it was the site of the defeat of a Jewish revolt against the Romans led by Bar Kokhba in the Second Century. Archaeological artifacts show the site was inhabited since the Iron Age. Today, some 4,000 residents live mostly by farming.

Now, they fear that Israel is about to construct the barrier it is building in and around the West Bank right through the village lands, which some fear could end this way of farming.

“The barrier will disconnect part of the farming lands from their owners and disturb the landscape,” Gilat Bartana of FOEME, told The Media Line. “An appeal against the barrier was rejected so building could start anytime soon.”

Building the barrier has already begun in the neighboring village of Wallaje. The Israeli Supreme Court rejected several appeals and the planned route of the barrier will completely surround the village. Omar Hajableh, 47, told The Media Line that the barrier will run very close to his house on the outskirts of the village. He says he will not be able to reach his 450 olive trees.

“It will be a prison here,” he says angrily. “The Israelis want me to leave my land but I refuse to. They say it’s for security – what security do they need here?”

He said that in the past ten years there has been one terror attack in the area. Hajableh also said that Israeli officials told him would build a special agricultural gate in the barrier to enable him to reach his farmland. Hajableh says this is not a solution.

“They said I can cross in twice a year to farm my land,” he said. “I work alone. I can’t take care of even one tree, let alone 450. They are simply trying to find a way to take the land.”

Israeli officials defend the route of the separation barrier, which Israel calls a “security fence” and Palestinians an “apartheid wall.” In a statement, the Defense Ministry said the route of the barrier is based only on security considerations and Israel tries to minimize the damage to the Palestinians. They say the numbers speak for itself, that the construction of the barrier has made a major contribution to Israel’s security, and that Palestinian attackers have not been able to enter Israel since it was erected. The barrier costs an estimated $1.4 million dollars per mile to build. Some 90 percent of it is a fence with trenches on both sides, while ten percent, in heavily populated areas, is a 26-foot high concrete barricade.

Part of the barrier runs along the so-called “Green Line”, the demarcation line between Israel and the West Bank that was agreed to in the 1949 armistice agreements, but part also dips into the West Bank. The Israeli human rights group B’tselem says the barrier effectively annexes 8.5 percent of the West Bank to Israel, by keeping that land on the Israeli side of the barrier.

Back in Battir, the view from the top of the hill is breathtaking. A donkey ambles by, led by a famer on the way to his plot. Palestinians here say they fear that the Israeli bulldozers will come, and permanently change their way of life.

Image of Battir on a hill from Shutterstock

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Award-winning architect Salma Samar Damluji speaks to GreenProphet about her mud architecture work in Yemen and why Dubai’s property development mentality is ruining the Middle East

The Middle East may be a fascinating place politically but architecturally, it’s on its last legs. Years of corruption and poor governance mean it’s slowly becoming one of the ugliest places on earth. You just need look at at the sprawling mess of glass and metal in Dubai to realise that something has gone awry. Salma Samar Damluji, an Iraqi architect of 30 years says that greed and corruption is behind the fall of architecture and insists that this money rush is destroying the region’s architectural heritage one building at a time.

And no-one knows this more than Damluji. She has fought what she calls architectural recolonisation in Egypt alongside Hassan Fathy who championed mud architecture practiced by the falaheen (rural peasants) in the 197os. And she’s also worked in Yemen restoring and renovating eco-friendly mud buildings in Yemen’s Wadi Hadramout where ancient building can disappear over night.

“In Europe, countries have been able to preserve their own culture, architecture and urban heritage but the rest of the Arab world hasn’t done that,” explains Damluji. “So as a result they have no architectural heritage left – everybody is imitating Dubai which is a complete disaster. Unfortunately you see the result of it now all across the Arab region.”

One country that Damluji believes has been able to hold back the mass commercialisation of architecture is Yemen. “When I first went in 1981, there was a kingdom of architecture and there was a huge rich resource of architectural heritage. Yemen, I felt, was the last place in the Arab world that had this incredible civilisation and urban heritage that had been going on for hundreds of years. They were so developed that they were creating these amazing palaces out of mud – very modern too. I felt that there was a cause there and I felt I had to take on that cause.”

She has been visiting Yemen ever since and from 2005, the Daw‘an Mud Brick Architecture Foundation has supported her work to restore buildings in Wadi Hadramout. Another important institution has been the Cultural Emergency Response (CER) of the The Prince Claus Fund in Netherlands, which funded restoration projects in ‘Aynat and Sah following a destructive flood in the region in 2008.

Damluji’s effort to protect and preserve the mud architecture of Yemen, however, hasn’t been easy. Civil war, political in-fighting and badly mismanaged resources mean she’s had to rely on outside support to carry out any restoration and she also has to take on other projects just to make a living. And it isn’t getting any easier.

“It’s harder now than it used to be to work in Yemen as a woman because there are more people in Hadramout who are more… I wouldn’t say fundamentalist. There is a worse level of education and people are taking the girls out of school at the age of 12 to get them married and people rely on money that comes from relatives living in Saudi and the Gulf.”

“So, things are difficult but there is still an architectural scene for me to engage in and there are all these builders who I adore but the people don’t like dealing with a woman… They think that to become good Muslims they need to do what the Saudi’s do and not talk to women. I think they’ve got the wrong end of the stick.”

Damluji’s hard work maybe challenging but it is being recognised – she was recently named one of the five winners of the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture. The one thing she wants the award to do, however, is bring more attention to the need for architectural restoration in Yemen. She says she is going to be bringing out her begging bowl and say ‘yalla, where’s the money’. “The Yemeni residents give me such a rough time but I think that maybe years down the line people will appreciate the architecture and heritage that I helped preserve.”

When I ask Damluji why architectural heritage is so down the list of priorities in the region, she pauses and replies with one word – greed. “I think it’s all tied up to politics, economics, corruption and how much money people can make from these big construction projects. The amount of money that changes hands during the kind of modern construction is huge and the fact that they annihilate architects from the equation means that developers have complete control over the building.”

Damluji also doesn’t see Masdar as some happy half-way solution. “I don’t know what’s so ecological about constructing in the desert,” she says. “And the other point is that Norman Foster [architectural team behind Masdar] was talking about Hadramout and Shibam in his literature about Masadar but he’s never been to Yemen. I am very cynical about that kind of development … I worked there [UAE] for a couple of years and I know the mentality.”

The things that do keep Damluji motivated and have kept her going back to Yemen for 25 years are the small victories – being able to restore a Sufi dome, conserving an important mosque in Yemen and keeping locals trained in the art of mud-architecture. “I think this thing- restoring architectural heritage – is like a battle and no matter what you do there is always more work to do. So I keep moving.”

: Top photo – Salma Samar Damluji outside Shibam’s gate with a visiting Saudi delegation © Rashid bin Shibraq, Mukalla 2010. 2nd photo – Al Faqih ‘Aynat Mosque in Wadi Hadramut ©SS Damluji, London 2012. Photo of Salma Damluji in Geneva via ©Aydan Balamir, 2007. Final photo – worker applying white wash to the ceilings of newly constructed bathroom at Nasir Ba Surrah’s house in Masna‘at ‘Urah, Daw‘an ©SS Damluji, London 2011.

For more on  mud architecture see: 
Iraqi Mud Architect Wins Prestigious Sustainability Award
Yemen’s ‘Manhattan of the Desert’ Boasts 400 Habitable Clay Towers
Hasan Fathy is the Middle East’s Father of Sustainable Architecture

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