Anders Karlsson (45 years old) has been appointed as World Heritage Coordinator and General Manager of the Vegaøyan World Heritage Foundation.
He will take over the job from Rita Johansen, who will retire from the turn of the year 2024/2025.
Anders Karlsson has worked as a technical manager in Vega Municipality for the past 15 years and is thus well acquainted with both the local community and the World Heritage. As head of the planning and development department in a World Heritage municipality, he has over several years gained good insight and knowledge of Norwegian and international management of World Heritage. This has given him both the opportunity and the mandate to help develop the new management plan for Vegaøyan World Heritage.
The management plan is based on the impact assessment for the Vegaøyan World Heritage Site that Vega Municipality produced together with the international knowledge team Instead Heritage 2020-2022. He led the work on the assessment and its implementation in the municipal planning system, in collaboration with the Directorate for Cultural Heritage and the Environmental Agency.
Anders Karlsson has had close cooperation with international UNESCO bodies since 2022 and has completed several different leadership courses within the world