African world heritage: a remarkable diversity / Patrimoine mondial africain : une diversité remarquable

The first inscriptions on the World Heritage List were made in 1978, with three African sites inscribed that year out of a total of twelve. There are presently forty-seven cultural, thirty-five natural and four mixed properties in the  region, representing 9 per cent of the 962 World Heritage properties in the world. Although the region remains underrepresented on the List, forty-five of the forty-six States Parties in the region have ratified the 1972 Convention and there are various levels of implementation in the different countries. Thirty-two of these States Parties have presented successful nominations to inscribe sites within their national boundaries on the World Heritage List.