Title
Gaps and opportunities for the World Heritage Convention to contribute to global wilderness conservation
Author(s)
Allan, James R.;Kormos, Cyril;Jaeger, Tilman;Venter, Oscar;Bertzky, Bastian;Shi, Yichuan;Mackey, Brendan;van Merm, Remco;Osipova, Elena;Watson, James E. M.
Published
2018
Publisher
Conservation Biology
Abstract
Wilderness areas are ecologically intact landscapes predominantly free of human uses, especially industrial scale activities, which result in significant biophysical disturbance. This definition does not exclude indigenous peoples and local communities who live in wilderness areas, depending on them for subsistence, and who have developed deep bio-cultural connections. Wilderness areas are important for biodiversity conservation, along with sustaining key ecological processes, and ecosystem services that underpin planetary life-support systems. Despite these widely recognized benefits and values they are insufficiently protected and are consequently being rapidly eroded. There are increasing calls for multilateral environmental agreements to make a greater and more systematic contribution to wilderness conservation before it is too late. We developed updated global maps of terrestrial wilderness and assessed wilderness coverage by the World Heritage Convention, one of the most important international conservation instruments. We found that one quarter of Natural and Mixed World Heritage Sites (WHS) contain wilderness, conserving a total of 545,307 km2 (approximately 1.8% of the world's wilderness extent). Many WHS had excellent wilderness coverage such as the Okavango Delta in Botswana (11,914 km2) and the Central Suriname Nature Reserve in Suriname (16,029 km2). However, 22 (35%) of the world's terrestrial biorealms do not have any wilderness representation within WHS. As an efficient means of filling these gaps, we identify 840 protected areas > 500 km2 in size which are predominantly wilderness (>50% of their area) and represent 18 of these 22 missing biorealms. These offer a starting point for assessing the potential for the designation of new WHS that could help increase wilderness representation on the World Heritage List. We also urge the World Heritage Convention to help ensure that the ecological integrity and Outstanding Universal Value of existing World Heritage Sites with wilderness values is preserved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved
Keywords
Biodiversity Conservation;Intact Habitat;Protected Areas;Ecosystem Services;Community Conservation;Ecological Integrity;Natural World Heritage
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PUB23874