Using UNESCO World Heritage to Protect Endangered National Wildlife Parks in Developing Countries

Global Conservation focuses on protecting endangered UNESCO World Heritage sites in developing countries due to their international designation of ‘Outstanding Universal Value to Mankind’ and high potential for long-term park and wildlife protection from sustainable tourism and community development.

UNESCO World Heritage and National Parks are the Last Bastions for saving our major intact tropical forests and wildlife habitats in the developing world. There are 209 Natural UNESCO World Heritage sites, only 82 of which are located in developing countries (ie. lower half of the World Bank Human Development Index).

Outside the Congo Basin and Amazon, very few large, intact tropical forests will be left standing outside of well-protected national parks. In most countries where we work, there are no forests or wildlife outside the national park. Global Conservation is working to save those last intact remaining tropical forests and wildlife habitats with the greatest biodiversity.

UNESCO World Heritage designation provides no funding, in most cases, but does improve the visibility of the park in the eyes of the government, and attracts greater tourism due to a park's international recognition of its ‘Outstanding Universal Value to Mankind’. 

UNESCO World Heritage Parks – Where We Work

Current Global Conservation Park and Wildlife Protection Projects include:

Leuser Ecosystem, Sumatra Indonesia                 UNESCO World Heritage

Thap Lan World Heritage, Thailand                     UNESCO World Heritage

Mana Pools World Heritage, Zimbabwe               UNESCO World Heritage

Cabo Pulmo National Marine Park, Mexico         UNESCO World Heritage

Jardines de la Reina Marine Park, Cuba               UNESCO World Heritage

Mirador National Park, Guatemala                       UNESCO Tentative List

Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda              UNESCO Man in Biosphere

Other endangered national parks in developing countries where we work (all of which should be UNESCO World Heritage) include Palau Northern Reefs, Micronesia; Cardamoms National Park, Cambodia; DaMaI World Heritage, Sabah Borneo, Malaysia; Alaungdaw Kathapa National Park, Myanmar; and Corcovado National Park, Costa Rica

Over the next ten years, Global Conservation will invest in park and wildlife protection for twenty-five (25) Unesco World Heritage Parks using our proven Global Park Defense methodology integrating funding, systems, technology and training.

Burning of the Maya Biosphere: Pensa Libre May 2017

We believe in this age of nature’s rapid destruction, UNESCO World Heritage and National Parks will be our last bastions to defend remaining intact forests and wildlife habitats against illegal logging, land clearing, cattle ranching, wildlife poaching, illegal mining and oil drilling.

Mirador surrounded by encroaching fires from 2015-2018.

Most countries in the developing world have few intact forests left outside of their national parks. UNESCO World Heritage designation, in theory, provides international recognition to give extra protection to national parks, but in practice, this designation brings few new resources to the parks for their protection.

The UNESCO World Heritage Center has total annual operating budget of only $3-4 million to monitor 1,092 World Heritage sites located in 167 countries. UNESCO’s World Heritage Fund supported by Italy, Sweden, Japan and others provides emergency grants of $20-$50,000 in dire emergencies from a total  budget of under $3 million a year for 1,092 UNESCO World Heritage sites. 

Global Conservation is focusing on the most endangered of the 209 World Heritage natural properties and one mixed property – Mirador National Park in Guatemala (UNESCO Tentative List) in the Heart of the Maya Biosphere, also UNESCO World Heritage.

Many people often ask me “I thought UNESCO World Heritage Sites are already protected?”. Another common reaction is “Doesn’t UNESCO already fund these parks to protect them? I saw their logo on the gate”.

While UNESCO World Heritage designation can be good for tourism and provide international recognition, if NGOs and the national and local governmental don’t support park and wildlife protection, and leverage the UNESCO designation in legal battles, lobbying, press campaigns and through the political process, having UNESCO World Heritage’s logo on the gate provides little money or protection.

What is the saddest thing of all is that UNESCO World Heritage and IUCN have spent lots of effort and money to select and designate 209 Natural Heritage sites to be included in the UNESCO World Heritage list, most of the parks in developing countires (82 World Heritage Parks) are still being raped and pillaged by illegal syndicates and local communities logging, poaching and clearing forests without repercussions.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) assists UNESCO in the monitoring of World Heritage and Man in Biosphere sites, being the world’s largest and most important conservation network. It is a worldwide union made up of states (countries) and non-governmental organizations that support its objectives and adhere to its statutes and its budget is over $200 million a year.

In recent years, neither the UNESCO World Heritage designation or UNESCO Man in Biosphere designations have helped to attract the needed funding to protect ‘The Best of the Best’ natural parks designated by the world to be of "Outstanding Universal Value to Mankind".

Oil pipeline in Yasuni National Park, Ecuador. Photo: AP

In Ecuador's Yasuní National Park, a UNESCO Man in Biosphere site, a new round of oil drilling is going deeper into Ecuador’s most biodiverse national park and most popular tourism destination. Despite its UNESCO designation, Ecuador’s State oil company starts the second phase of drilling this year deep into one of the world’s most biodiverse hotspots.

Virunga in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), one of the world’s largest, oldest and most endangered UNESCO World Heritage parks, and subject of a major documentary, is facing a dire situation from armed rebels, wildlife poaching and illegal fishing.  Virunga received just $300,000 over 10 years from UNESCO World Heritage Fund. The DRC president just announced major concessions for new oil drilling in Virunga World Heritage Park, a slap in the face to our planet’s world heritage.

Almost half of natural World Heritage Sites – over 100 - are threatened by harmful industrial activities such as exploring and extracting oil, gas and minerals, illegal logging, overfishing, unsustainable use of water, and large-scale infrastructure projects such as dams, pipelines, roads, and mega ports.

Positive Forces for Protecting UNESCO World Heritage

On a positive note, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee made a historic decision to remove the Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System from the List of World Heritage in Danger due to safeguarding measures taken by Belize—notably a moratorium on oil exploration in the entire maritime zone of Belize, better zoning against over-development, and the strengthening of forestry regulations allowing for better protection of mangroves.

Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System removed from World Heritage in Danger list. 

Inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1996, more than half of Belize’s population rely on the Belize Barrier Reef to live. Reef-based tourism and recreational activities provide vital sources of income, and the reef serves as a natural protection against storms along the coast.

Due to the high tourism potential of UNESCO World Heritage Parks, and their international recognition, they are often given higher priority than other protected areas in a country, but most developing countries have few resources for park and wildlife protection, despite facing an onslaught of wildlife poaching, illegal logging, land clearing and cattle ranching.

Danam Valley, DaMaI World Heritage in Sabah Borneo, Malaysia

DaMaI World Heritage in Sabah Borneo, Malaysia and Alaungdaw Kathapa National Park, Myanmar are both in the process of UNESCO World Heritage designations.  Generally, countries do prioritize available resources and manpower in protecting UNESCO World Heritage sites first, before other lesser protected areas. Tourism tends to come first and in the greatest quantity to UNESCO World Heritage sites, thus offering long-term financial stability.

Because World Heritage Sites are recognized as internationally important, international organizations often give priority to World Heritage Sites in making financial grants and providing technical assistance. 

When a country nominates an area for UNESCO World Heritage designation, it commits to protecting that site in the future; as a result, national governments and foundations also emphasize World Heritage Sites in their own allocations of funding and assistance.

Africa is underrepresented on the World Heritage List, accounting for less than ten percent (10%) of the properties thereon, but by 2018 almost 40 percent of the World Heritage Sites in Africa were on the list of World Heritage Sites in Danger. Africa parks are often massive and spread across thousands of kilometers and their governments face tight constraints on available funding and human resources.

UNESCO World Heritage Helping Protect the Leuser Ecosystem

In Leuser Ecosystem, it’s UNESCO World Heritage designation has helped in improving Indonesian National government recognition of the massive threats Sumatran Tropical Rainforest Heritage is facing.

Global Conservation supported NGOs and experts to testify at the 2018 Bahrain UNESCO World Heritage Committee meeting and was successful to help enshrine a strong set of recommendations from the international community to Indonesia. The UNESCO World Heritage Committee affirmed our concerns and objectives for the Leuser Ecosystem and provide conservationists with potent political tools to pressure government authorities to tackle the threats to Leuser.

Photo: Stephen Belcher/AFP/Getty Images

The World Heritage Committee has recognized the significance of the entire Leuser Ecosystem to protecting World Heritage values. This decision takes international concern well beyond the narrow boundaries of the inscribed World Heritage property and seeks to:

1.    Ensure that wildlife corridors and essential habitat in the ‘wider landscape’ (ie all of Leuser) are maintained;

2.    Ensure that roads and hydro dams are subjected to rigorous environmental impact assessments that consider impacts on World Heritage values;

3.    Ensure that the recent moratorium on oil-palm development and mining in the Leuser Ecosystem is extended to ensure that key habitats are protected.

The decision reiterated previous calls for more effective law enforcement against illegal logging, poaching, encroachment and other illegal activities. The property was kept on the List of World Heritage in Danger.  The Indonesian Government did not object to the decision, thereby accepting the onus to stop logging, roads, palm-oil development and other destructive developments such as hydro dams.

These outcomes provide new political leverage for local, national and international NGOs to tackle the destructive processes bedeviling Leuser Ecosystem.