'Culture creates cohension of society', UNESCO director-general(2)

Bokova said China was among the countries that had one of the highest numbers of world heritage sites.

"China has made an incredibly enormous effort to protect, to conserve, to pass these sites to the future generations," she said.

She particularly cited the West Lake in Hangzhou, which is a world heritage site, as a good example of building belongings to the local communities. It makes the local communities close to what they own and what they believe to make them part of the protection.

"World heritage has a message. It's not just stones and bricks or beautiful landscapes. It's the message of dialogue coming out of cultures, of culture diversity. Sometimes it's the message of reconciliation; sometimes it's the message of human dignity, of human creativity, of the history of development," she said.

All these make a heritage something that is valued more and more in this world, especially when related countries have the pressure of modernization and globalization, according to Bokova.

However, the heritages are under threat. Bokova said her organization has found a number of cases where climate change is destroying historical sites and has a toll on them. In addition, the needs for urban settings for modernization and construction also have negative impacts.

"We always alert authorities in local communities that first and foremost, in any project for modernization, the authenticity of the world heritage site should have a priority over any other single projects," she said.

She said UNESCO's work can only become successful, when politicians believe in long terms the benefits of protecting world heritage would overweight any other considerations.

Bokova saw culture industries as creative industries that not only contribute to GDP growth, but also to showcase their role to bring about inclusion and social cohesion in societies, as well as social mobility and gender equality.