ABSTRACT
The creation of the World Heritage Convention is a complex story that involves drafts, counter-drafts, dramatic debates and institutional rivalries. Building on an international discourse that began in the cultural field in the 1920s and continued after the Second World War with an added focus on natural resources protection, the Convention was clearly a product of its time in its reflection of a new global sensitivity to urban development and environmental degradation. During the 1920s and 1930s under the auspices of the League of Nations, as explained by Sarah Titchen in her unpublished doctoral thesis, concepts of common heritage and international cooperation as well as a distinctive style of international diplomacy emerged. The history of the natural component of the World Heritage Convention involves the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), the Science Sector of UNESCO and a group of influential American environmentalists.
