Wildlife and humans thriving in Unesco-protected sites | Unesco

Wildlife and people thrive in UNESCO-recognized sites, research shows, enabling the recovery of threatened species and habitats around the world.

While wildlife populations have fallen by almost three-quarters globally since 1970, those living in UNESCO-protected areas have remained largely stable.

“This is good news, it shows that these sites are extremely resilient in the face of a changing world,” said Tales Carvalho Resende, one of the co-authors of the report People and Nature in UNESCO Sites, published on Tuesday.

But these sites are also seriously threatened: more than 300,000 km² of tree cover, an area larger than the Republic of Congo, has been lost in UNESCO-designated sites since 2000, mainly due to agricultural expansion and logging. Around 90% of the world’s UNESCO sites are also judged to be under “high levels” of environmental stress, primarily extreme heat.

One in four designated sites could reach a critical climate tipping point by 2050, according to UNESCO. These include the disappearance of glaciers, the collapse of coral reefs and the drying out of forests, transforming the status of a carbon sink into a carbon source.

“Now climate change is really the main factor that threatens the sites,” Carvalho said. “They need to adapt to face the challenges ahead. It’s definitely worth investing in this area.”

Much of the world’s “charismatic megafauna,” whose populations have plummeted in recent decades due to poaching, agricultural encroachment and other stresses, have found refuge in UNESCO-designated sites, where they often enjoy far greater protection than in undesignated areas. About a third of the world’s remaining elephants, tigers and pandas are found on UNESCO sites, as are about a tenth of the remaining great apes, giraffes, lions, rhinos and dugongs.

Some of the most endangered species are also found only in UNESCO reserves. The 10 vaquitas, a species of porpoise believed to be the last of their kind, the 60 or so remaining Javan rhinos, and about 85 percent of the remaining Sumatran orangutan population, estimated at around 15,000 individuals, are found in designated sites.

UNESCO sites are also home to about a tenth of the world’s population, which benefits from biodiversity, generating about a tenth of global GDP, according to the report, which is the first global assessment examining all 2,260 protected areas.

Carvalho gave the example of Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where populations of highly endangered mountain gorillas have been protected with the support of local communities.

Of the three forms of designation by UNESCO, the highest is World Heritage Sites, which are cultural monuments, achievements or natural areas deemed to be of global importance, and governments are required to protect them under the United Nations organization’s founding treaty, the World Heritage Convention of 1972. More recently, UNESCO has introduced biosphere reserves, which are examples of sustainable development in action, and global geoparks, which feature particularly significant geology. Governments are also supposed to manage these areas, but they do not have the full legal force of the original.

All three together cover more than 13 million square kilometers, an area larger than that of China and India combined, and more than 60% of the world’s species are found in these sites, around 40% of which are found nowhere else on earth. They are also home to around 900 million people speaking more than 1,000 languages.

About a quarter of the sites overlap with indigenous peoples’ territories, and many are managed by indigenous and local communities.

The report also reveals that UNESCO sites store around 240 gigatons of carbon, equivalent to almost two decades of emissions from burning fossil fuels.

Khaled El-Enany, Director-General of UNESCO, said: “Within these [Unesco designated] territories and communities prosper, humanity’s heritage endures and biodiversity holds strong while it is collapsing elsewhere. This report reveals what we stand to lose if [these sites] are not priorities. »