As Director of the World Heritage Centre, Francesco Bandarin was responsible for the implementation of the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage and, to that end, coordinated institutional activities relating to the inscription of sites on the World Heritage List.

During that time, the Centre launched a number of thematic programmes (Forests, Religious Interest, Small Island Developing States, Marine, Cities and more) and facilitated the creation of research and training centres in Bahrain, Brazil,