Portugal working to protect world heritage sites

Portugal has made considerable efforts in the past decade to protect its 15 UNESCO World Heritage sites, including Sintra, which is located some 30 kilometers northwest of the capital Lisbon.

"Portugal was faced with a number of problems regarding management and deterioration of structures in the 1990s, but the situation has improved," says Mechtild Rossler, director of the Division for Heritage and the UNESCO World Heritage Center.

Following local complaints and awareness by the World Heritage Center that all was not going as planned after Sintra's inscription in 1995, a reactive monitoring mission was carried out in 2000.