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BOB DOUGHTY: The Global Heritage Fund is a nonprofit organization based in California. Its goal is to protect places of cultural importance in developing countries.

The group says it pays attention to developing countries because they often have few resources to protect places of cultural importance. And, other major cultural organizations often pay more attention to protecting places in the developed world.

For example, the fund points out that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization has forty-five World Heritage places in Italy. UNESCO has forty-two in Spain. But Peru, famous for its ancient Incan buildings, has only nine World Heritage Places. Guatemala has only three.

FAITH LAPIDUS: Many of the Global Heritage Fund’s efforts help communities learn how best to protect their cultural treasures. The fund says it also aims to show how countries can use these places to support economic growth.

The organization has developed a protection method using local communities, science and partnerships with other groups.

The Global Heritage Fund recently published a report called “Saving Our Vanishing Heritage.” The report has several goals. One is to raise public awareness about the threats to historical places around the world.

The fund says the problem is an international crisis that is equal to environmental destruction around the world. Another goal of the report is to identify inventive technologies to help solve the crisis. The report also aims to increase funding to these projects through partnerships between public and private groups.