The Directorate for Cultural Heritage is responsible for the management of all archaeological or architectural monuments and sites and cultural environments in accordance with the relevant legislation. The Directorate is under the Ministry of the Environment and plays a central role in public environmental management.

Each county has a service responsible for cultural conservation in connection with the general administration of cultural affairs. The tasks of this service are to advise the county administration on questions of cultural conservation and to ensure that protected monuments, sites and cultural environments are taken into account in planning processes at the county and the municipal level. The Sámediggi (Sami Parliament) has the same tasks as the county cultural heritage service in the Sami areas (please see The Sámi section for more details).

In accordance with the cultural heritage regulations for Svalbard, the Governor’s Office administers cultural conservation on Svalbard.

The purpose of cultural heritage management is described in the Cultural Heritage Act, which stipulates that it is a national responsibility to safeguard archaeological and architectural monuments, sites and cultural environments 'as part of our cultural heritage and identity and as an element in the overall environment and resource management.'

Under the provisions of the Act, the Directorate for Cultural Heritage may impose a protection order on buildings, groups of buildings and cultural landscapes. The Cultural Heritage Act also regulates the relations between the authorities and the owners of protected monuments and sites. However, only a fraction of Norway’s cultural heritage is protected in this way. There are a large number of buildings and other monuments and sites considered worthy of protection because of their qualities and their importance to the surrounding environment. Other acts of legislation may be invoked to protect these monuments and sites, notably the Building and Planning Act.

Museums in Norway fall under the Norwegian Archive, Library and Museum Authority, which was established on 1 January 2003 following the merger of the Norwegian Directorate for Public Libraries, the Norwegian Museum Authority, and the National Office for Research Documentation, Academic and Special Libraries. The Norwegian Archive, Library and Museum Authority is a public institution under the authority of the Ministry of Culture and Church Affairs. The organisation is a centre of excellence for archives, libraries and museums, working towards a future-oriented investment in collections management, documentation, research, preservation, preparation, dissemination and publicity.

As the government states in its report 'Cultural Policy up to 2014', the main challenge in the museums sector is to transform the plethora of 700-800 museums into approximately 100 professionally qualified and financially viable institutions that will co-operate with each other in a national network. The Norwegian Archive, Library and Museum Authority is currently tasked with the consolidation of the various museums in each region into one museum or one common administrative unit, with the goal of establishing stronger units professionally, economically and administratively and creating a true national museums network. Such networks will prevent unnecessary competitive overlap between museums and thus ensure professional and efficient investment of resources