Fifth of known species on Earth found in UNESCO world heritage sites
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Scientists say the world heritage sites are under threat from climate change and human overconsumption, sparking worries that certain species may become extinct in protected regions.
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The Unesco (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Culture Organization) headquarters is pictured in Paris on November 18, 2022. (AP)
A fifth of all known life on earth is found in UNESCO World Heritage Sites, according to a first-ever survey of the world's most significant cultural and historical sites.
The Great Barrier Reef, the Kazakstan steppe, and nearly three-quarters of all bird species, mammals, and hard corals are recorded at World Heritage Sites, even though they represent less than one percent of the planet's total area, according to a new analysis of UNESCO's world heritage sites by the World Wide Fund for Nature and Unesco.
The 1,157 protected areas include key nature sites like the Okavango Delta, as well as landmarks like the Great Wall of China, which are home to some of the world's most endangered species, including all remaining Javan rhinos, vaquita porpoises, and pink iguanas, in addition to more than half of all mountain gorillas, breeding albatrosses, and Sumatran orangutans.
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According to the study, the world heritage sites include Hyperion, the world's tallest tree at 115 meters, the stinking corpse lily, the biggest bloom, and the wintering zone of the monarch butterfly. According to the report, the sites encompass an area greater than India, including forests twice the size of Germany.
However, scientists say the world heritage sites are under threat from climate change and human overconsumption, sparking worries that certain species may become extinct in protected regions.
In July, a marine heatwave stuck along more than 2,000 km of the Queensland coast, causing worry about the well-being of corals in the Great Barrier Reef and other marine life. Data from the US National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration (NOAA) indicate that the heatwave began in late June, leaving about 1 million square kilometers northeast of Australia under the mercy of heatwave conditions.
According to the report's authors, nations should consider how to better safeguard the sites as they seek to reach this decade's UN biodiversity objectives, which are due before Biodiversity COP16 next year, as part of their attempts to protect 30% of the Earth and repair damaged ecosystems.
According to Lazare Eloundou Assomo, UNESCO's director of world heritage, while most world heritage sites are cultural, they also include numerous vital natural regions that require immediate conservation.
Assomo warned governments to protect the sites as they are "essential for the protection of biodiversity. We want them to do more by giving them the data to show that if they do not protect these areas, so many key species may go extinct. Vaquitas, the Javan rhinoceros, mountain gorillas: they are all in world heritage sites."
According to the assessment, Unesco sites also contain important migration routes for birds, such as the East Atlantic flyway, which spans from the Arctic to South Africa, and the East Asian-Australasian flyway. Elephant, shark, and saiga antelope migration routes are all shown, as is the huge migration of wildebeest across the East African plains.
The research suggests that governments should integrate UNESCO sites in their national biodiversity strategy and action plans, which will describe how a country is contributing to natural objectives agreed upon at the COP15 biodiversity summit last December.
