It also alerts the international community to these situations in the hope that it will be able to unite efforts to save these endangered sites. Listing a site as World Heritage in Danger allows the conservation community to respond to identified conservation needs in an effective manner. Inclusion of a site on this list often proves effective and can prompt rapid conservation action.

Inscription of a site on the List of World Heritage in Danger requires the World Heritage Committee to develop and adopt a program of restoration measures in consultation with the State concerned and then monitor the condition of the site. Every effort must be made to restore the value of the site in order to enable its removal from the List of World Heritage in Danger as soon as possible.

The process of inscription on the List of World Heritage in Danger is not undertaken in the same way by all parties involved. Some countries apply to register a site to focus international attention on its problems and to get expert help in solving them. While other countries prefer not to register their sites on lists of threatened sites and consider it a shame. The listing of any site as World Heritage in Danger should in no way be viewed as a punishment but as a system created to respond to identified conservation needs in an effective manner.

If a site loses the characteristics that determined its inclusion on the World Heritage List, the World Heritage Committee may decide to delete it from the List of World Heritage in Danger and the World Heritage List. To date, this provision of the Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention has been applied twice.