A virtual signing ceremony of a Memorandum of Understanding between the International Centre on Space Technologies for Natural and Cultural Heritage under the auspices of UNESCO based in Beijing and the International Union for Conservation of Nature, July 7, 2022. /CGTN 

Together, they will improve geospatial and Earth observation capacities by assessing radar, plane and satellite imageries provided by Chinese scientists to address problems as more than 1,000 world's natural and cultural heritages in about 170 countries are threatened by natural disasters, climate change and human activities. 

"It will really improve our spatial data on natural world heritage sites. This is a long-term challenge for us and is so pleased to see it being addressed," said Jane Smart, director of IUCN's Science and Data Centre. 

This, according to IUCN, will become functional starting before this September. 

Space technologies are becoming more important in monitoring, conserving, and protecting both natural and cultural World Heritage sites. /CGTN 

"In the monitoring of World Heritage sites, we will generate a great deal of data and transmit them into information. From them, we will see changes and ask why these take place and what are the trends," said Guo Huadong, director of UNESCO International Centre on Space Technologies for Natural and Cultural Heritage. 

"These are IUCN scientists need. And through our research, I believe we will constantly provide analysis results one after another, for the conservation of UNESCO World Heritage sites, and the decision-making at national level," Guo said. (CGTN)