The World Heritage Convention was adopted by UNESCO in 1972.
Its formal name is the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. The agreement created the international framework for identifying and protecting places considered to have outstanding universal value, whether because of cultural achievements, natural features, or both.
The convention grew from two major conservation concerns. One was the international campaign to save the monuments of Nubia, including the temples threatened by construction of Egypt’s Aswan High Dam. The other was the growing movement to establish a shared system for protecting important natural areas. The convention joined cultural and natural heritage in a single treaty.
The first World Heritage sites were inscribed in 1978. The convention is often confused with the UNESCO World Heritage List itself: the convention is the treaty, while the list is the register created and maintained under that treaty.