World Heritage in danger: natural sites in Honduras and Sumatra added

IUCN 22 Jun 11;

The Rio Platano Biosphere Reserve in Honduras and the Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra in Indonesia have been added to the List of World Heritage in Danger, following the advice of IUCN.

The Rio Platano Biosphere Reserve, the biggest protected area in Honduras, has been inscribed today on the Danger List at the request of the government of Honduras. Its largely intact forests, mangroves, coastal lagoons and savannahs have been put at risk due to lack of law enforcement. Illegal settlement by squatters, illegal commercial fishing, illegal logging, poaching and a proposed dam construction on the Patuca river, have all led IUCN to recommend the site to be added to the Danger List.

“We fully support Honduras’ positive move to request Rio Platano to be included in the List of World Heritage in Danger and signal the need for increased international support to protect the natural wealth of this site, where over 2,000 indigenous people continue their traditional way of living, directly dependant on natural resources,” says Mariam Kenza Ali, IUCN World Heritage Conservation Officer.

The Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra in Indonesia has also been added to the Danger List. IUCN has consistently recommended the site to be included on the Danger list since 2004, the year of its inscription on the World Heritage List. Four UNESCO/IUCN monitoring missions in the last five years have led to the conclusion that the site needs an emergency restoration plan. Road construction and agricultural encroachment are among the major threats of this area.

“Including the exceptional Sumatran rainforests on the Danger list today signals a message of international concern to support this site,” says Peter Shadie, IUCN’s senior adviser on World Heritage. “The Committee has taken this important decision after several years of debate, and we now need to ensure that it leads to real action on the ground to tackle long standing threats.”

The Virgin Komi Forests, Russia’s first natural site added to the World Heritage List, was not added to the Danger List, despite IUCN’s recommendation. The approval of a gold mine inside the site and national level boundary changes, which led to the loss of legal protection for these areas, are both clear criteria for a site to be declared ‘in danger’, according to IUCN.

“World Heritage Sites have been recognised as no-go areas for mining, both by IUCN, UNESCO and business leaders,” says Tim Badman, Director of IUCN’s World Heritage Programme. “We consider inclusion on the Danger List was fully warranted, and we consider urgent remedial action is needed for the Virgin Komi Forests to resolve the critical threat to its Outstanding Universal Value.”

The Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu, the world’s most renowned icon of the Inca civilization, was also not added to the Danger List, despite threats such as lack of adequate governance, future construction of a road, impacts of the growth of numbers of visitors and lack of preventive measures against natural disasters.

“This is a missed opportunity to send a message of international support for Machu Picchu,” says Badman. “We should remember that the Danger List is not a black mark for countries, but a way of drawing attention and providing support to the sites that need it the most.”

Australia's Ningaloo coast added to Unesco's World Heritage List
Reef complex and Kenya lake system make it on to list but two other sites added to heritage in danger
Maev Kennedy guardian.co.uk 24 Jun 11;

The Ningaloo coast in Australia, a vast complex of reefs, caves, streams and shallow waters, and the Kenya lake system in the great rift valley in Africa, an area of outstanding beauty and home to 13 threatened bird species, are the latest sites to be added to the World Heritage List at the Unesco meeting this week in Paris.

The Ningaloo coast in Western Australia covers 708,350 hectares of coastal waters and land, including one of the longest near-shore reefs in the world, and is home to rare wildlife including whale sharks and sea turtles, already attracts more than 100,000 visitors a year.

The three shallow lakes in Kenya's Rift Valley form the most important site anywhere for lesser flamingo, as well as mammals including giraffe, black rhino, kudu, lion, cheetah and wild dogs.

More depressingly, the committee also added two sites to the Heritage in Danger list. Sumatra's tropical rainforest is now regarded as endangered by poaching, illegal logging, clearance for farming, and plans for more roads. The Rio Platano biosphere reserve, a rare remnant of tropical rainforest in central America, is also threatened by illegal logging and poaching, with the added complication that drug trafficking has made the area so dangerous its environment is almost impossible to police. Most of it is in Honduras, and the request to add it to the danger list came from the Honduran government, to highlight the problems it faces in protecting it.

In a rare piece of good news for endangered sites, India's protection for the Manas wildlife sanctuary in the foothills of the Himalayas, classified as under threat since 1992, is regarded as having improved enough for the site to go back onto the main world heritage list.

Natural wonders in Kenya, Australia and Japan declared World Heritage Sites
IUCN 25 Jun 11;

The Lakes System in the Great Rift Valley in Kenya, the Ningaloo Coast in Australia and the Ogasawara Islands in Japan have been inscribed on the World Heritage List, following the recommendations of IUCN.

IUCN, the independent advisory body on nature to UNESCO, presented the findings of its comprehensive evaluations of the natural values of 13 nominated sites to the World Heritage Committee. With the new additions announced today at the meeting in Paris, the number of natural and mixed sites is now 210.

Recommended for inscription by IUCN for its outstanding beauty and biodiversity, the Kenya Lakes System consists of three lakes: Lake Elementaita, Lake Nakuru and Lake Bogoria, all of which lie in basins on the floor of the Great Rift Valley which transects Kenya North-South. The three lakes are an integral part of one the largest bird migratory routes in the world sustaining 75% of the global population of the lesser flamingo, supporting one of the major breeding colonies of the great white pelicans and providing a vital wintering ground for over 100 species of migratory birds.

“It is wonderful to see these spectacular lake sites in Kenya, and their rich bird life, achieving recognition as natural sites of the highest global importance,“ says Tim Badman, Director of IUCN’s World Heritage Programme. “We especially welcome this inscription as the first natural World Heritage Site listed in Africa since 2007.”

The Ningaloo Reef on the north-western coast of Australia is home to the largest fish in the world, the Whale Shark, as well as to more than 500 species of tropical fish and 220 species of coral. The rich marine life includes soft and hard corals, manta rays, sea snakes, whales, turtles, dungeons and sharks. Australia is the country with the largest number of natural World Heritage Sites in the world.

“The Ningaloo Coast is a unique place with outstanding natural beauty and biological diversity, which plays an important role in the protection of marine species,” says Tim Badman. “The Coast tells an extraordinary story of biological isolation, climate change, the movement of continents and environmental conservation.”

Located in the western Pacific Ocean roughly 1,000 km south of the main Japanese Archipelago, the Ogasawara Islands are an outstanding example of ongoing evolutionary and biological processes in oceanic island ecosystems. The newly inscribed site includes more than 30 islands and marine areas, clustered within three island groups and is home to over 140 endemic plants and animals.

“The remoteness of the Ogasawara Islands has allowed animals and plants to evolve practically undisturbed, making it a living evolutionary laboratory,” says Peter Shadie, Deputy Head of IUCN’s Delegation. “The Ogasawara Islands tell a unique story of how life on earth has and continues to evolve with new species being regularly discovered.”