In Focus World Heritage And Wilderness World Heritage And .

In FocusWorld Heritage and wildernessWorld Heritageand wildernessCyril F. KormosVice-Chair for World HeritageInternational Union for Conservation of Nature–World Commission on Protected Areas (IUCN–WCPA)Vice President for PolicyThe WILD FoundationRussell A. MittermeierPresidentConservation InternationalThe vast natural forest of Yellowstone National Park (United States) covers nearly 9,000 km2. Our Place – The World Heritage Collection20World Heritage No. 73

In FocusWorld Heritage No. 7321

In FocusWorld Heritage and wildernessMosi-oa-Tunya / Victoria Falls (Zambia/Zimbabwe) is the world’s greatest sheet of falling water. Pius Mahimbiecent global environmentalconferences held by the UnitedNations, including the 10thConference of the Parties ofthe Convention on BiologicalDiversity in 2010 and the Rio 20 meetings in2012, provided the scientific community withthe opportunity to take stock of the state ofthe planet’s environment. Unfortunately,the results were not encouraging. Scientistsconfirmed that the global biodiversityand climate change crises are acceleratingrapidly. In fact, they suggested that wehave now altered our natural environmentso profoundly that we may be approachinga human-induced global ‘state-shift’, anecological transformation that could be evengreater than the changes brought about bythe end of the last Ice Age.The upsideFortunately the continuing bad newsis tempered by the fact that we do havemechanisms at our disposal to address the22World Heritage No. 73growing environmental crisis. Protectedareas of all types – whether they areestablished and managed by governments,communities, Indigenous groups or privateentities – are an integral part of the globalresponse. They are essential to protectbiodiversity and to provide natural solutionsto climate change.They also play a crucial role in ensuringlivelihoods and safeguarding traditionalcultures, and forested protected areasin particular are indispensable for foodsecurity and for regulating the quality andflow of freshwater supplies. Protected areasare also important places for humans tointeract with wild nature for their physical,mental and spiritual health. In recognition ofthe many benefits they provide, protectedareas are now understood to be thefoundation of green economies and moreattention is being paid by governments tointegrating the value of natural capital intonational income accounting and corporateaccounting processes.In short, protected areas are increasinglyrecognized as essential life-support systemson all scales – local, national, regional andglobal. Greater appreciation of the centralimportance of protected areas has translatedinto rapid and continuing expansion of theglobal protected areas estate over the lastfew decades, including in the marine biomewhere conservation efforts have lagged butare finally making major strides. Significantadditional resources and more protectedareas are needed to ensure comprehensive,effective, representative and viable globalnetworks. But the good news is that we aremaking progress.A global protectedareas strategyAccelerating climate change combinedwith the very rapid fragmentation of theremaining intact landscapes dictates thata global protected areas strategy mustinclude a wilderness component: i.e. weneed a systematic strategy for creating

In FocusA manta ray in Phoenix Islands Protected Area (Kiribati). UNESCO/Ron Van Oerslarger protected areas and ensuring theseareas are interconnected. These landscapeand seascape conservation efforts linkingcore terrestrial and marine protected areasare essential for long-term protectionof biodiversity and ecosystem services,including climate change mitigation andadaptation. Here too, we are seeingsome progress. Large-scale connectivityconservation initiatives are moving forwardaround the world, often across borders andon continental scales – from the Yellowstoneto Yukon Conservation Initiative in NorthAmerica to the Eastern Pacific ConservationMarine Corridor between Costa Rica,Panama and Colombia to the KavangoZambezi Transfrontier Conservation Areawhich includes parts of Angola, Botswana,Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. TheGuiana Shield is the most intact tropicalrainforest wilderness left on Earth and coverslarge portions of the countries of Suriname,Guyana and the Bolivarian Republic ofVenezuela, the French overseas departmentThe Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA)of Kiribati, at 408,000 km2, is the largest anddeepest World Heritage site on Earth.of French Guiana and the northernmostparts of the Brazilian Amazon, and includesmany very large protected areas. WorldHeritage sites (e.g. Central Suriname NatureReserve and Canaima National Park inVenezuela) often serve as anchors for theselarge connectivity initiatives.The World Heritage Convention iswell-situated to contribute to wildernessconservation globally. One reason is that theConvention has recognized, and continuesto recognize, very large iconic areas. Fromthe Central Amazon Conservation Complex(Brazil) to Kluane/Wrangell-St. tates) and Okavango Delta (Botswana),the 1,000th site to be added to the WorldHeritage List at the 38th session of the WorldHeritage Committee in Doha in June 2014,many very large sites are listed. Anotheris the amazing Phoenix Islands ProtectedArea (PIPA) of Kiribati, at 408,000 km2, thelargest and deepest World Heritage site onEarth. As one of the few site-based globalenvironmental agreements (the RamsarConvention is perhaps the only otherexample), the World Heritage Conventionis a very useful international instrumentto bring a focus to the importance ofwilderness areas.Another reason why the Conventionis a useful mechanism for wildernessprotection is that it is unique in its explicitlinkage of nature and culture. In practiceprocedural and methodological challengeshave made it difficult to recognize theseWorld Heritage No. 7323

In FocusWorld Heritage and wildernesslinkages in individual sites as often as theycould be done, simply because culturaland natural values are evaluated separatelyby two different organizations (ICOMOSand IUCN). However, these challenges arein the process of being addressed. This isvery timely because nature–culture linkagesare particularly important in the contextof wilderness conservation involvingIndigenous peoples and local communities.Nature and cultureIndigenouspeoplesandlocalcommunities make enormous contributionsto protecting the planet’s biodiversity andecosystem services: the area protectedin Indigenous and community conservedareas is probably as large or larger thanthe approximately 13 per cent of theplanet’s terrestrial area which is alreadyin protected areas. The individual areasunder protection by Indigenous peoplesand communities are often quite largeand very intact wilderness areas (e.g.Kayapó Indigenous Territories in thesouthern Brazilian Amazon, covering 11.5million ha). The reason that some of theseareas remain in good condition and undergood stewardship is precisely because theyare owned and managed by Indigenouspeoples whose cultures and traditionallifestyles are inseparable from the wildlands they have long inhabited, sometimesGuitarfish at Coiba National Park (Panama). LASZLO ILYES24for millennia. These lands are often sacredor hold special spiritual value, which canfurther contribute to their protection.The important issue of the oftenindissoluble links between nature andculture, and in particular Indigenouspeoples, has now been taken up bythe Convention, in part as a result ofa Committee decision relating to thenomination of the very large, intact andIndigenous managed Pimachiowin Aki areain Canada. Much more can and must bedone to support Indigenous peoples andlocal communities in their conservationefforts, and to implement rights-basedapproaches to conservation. A wildernessapproach under the Convention cancontribute to these important objectives inthe case of large Indigenous managed siteswith Outstanding Universal Value.A third key point with respect to theConvention and wilderness conservationhas to do with the added protection againstindustrial threats that the Conventioncan provide to existing and prospectivewilderness World Heritage sites. TheConvention was established in responseto international concern that some of themost extraordinary places around the worldwere being destroyed or threatened withimminent destruction. The Conventionrequires sites to be well protected andmanaged and to demonstrate ‘integrity’. AsKayapó people are protecting their traditionallands, the Kayapó Indigenous Territoriesin the southern Brazilian Amazon. CIFOR amazonWorld Heritage No. 73

In FocusCanaima National Park (Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela) is spread over 3 million hain south-eastern Venezuela along the border between Guyana and Brazil. Erik Cleves Kristensena result, sites inscribed on the World HeritageList are clearly understood to be no-gozones for industrial activity as this wouldbe inconsistent with good management.Whereas many sites continue to be underthreat despite their World Heritage status,there is a growing number of exampleswhere the no-go principle is being adheredto. Governments are cancelling concessionsin sites to ensure World Heritage listing (as inthe case of Okavango Delta), companies areforegoing concessions that were granted inWorld Heritage sites, recognizing that theseshould not have been awarded (as in thecase of the oil company Total in VirungaNational Park, companies are refusingproducts sourced in World Heritage sites(e.g. Tiffany’s policy on diamond sourcing)and banks are refusing to fund projects inWorld Heritage sites (e.g. HSBC).Protection of sitesThe World Heritage Convention has beeninstrumental in protecting many wildernesssites around the world. However, we believethat it can and should adopt an evenmore systematic approach to protectingwilderness areas. Discussions regardinga potential World Heritage wildernessapproach under the Convention wereinitiated by IUCN’s World Commission onProtected Areas at WILD10, the 10th WorldWilderness Congress in Salamanca (Spain) inlate 2013. A well-attended side event chairedby IUCN-WCPA and co-organized with thePew Charitable Trusts was subsequently heldat the World Heritage Committee meetingin Doha, and the possibility of a wildernessapproach was very well received. IUCN’sWorld Parks Congress will be the next majorinternational venue for further discussionand deliberation on this important theme.Wilderness will figure prominently inthe World Heritage cross-cutting themesessions at the congress, which are beingco-organized by IUCN, IUCN-WCPA and theWorld Heritage Centre.Following the World Parks Congressthe objective will be to hold a workshopspecifically dedicated to this theme,preparatory to developing IUCN thematicguidance on World Heritage and wilderness.Developing thematic guidance will involvesome complexity, as the wilderness themebrings together a number of importantissues – from rights-based approaches, tonature – cultural linkages where wildernessprotection is inextricably tied to culturalpractices, to an examination of thepotential of each of the natural criteria tocontribute to a wilderness approach underthe Convention. But developing thematicguidance will be worthwhile and willconstitute a useful tool to help implementa more systematic approach to wildernessconservation under the Convention.World Heritage No. 7325

example), the World Heritage Convention is a very useful international instrument to bring a focus to the importance of wilderness areas. Another reason why the Convention . co-organized by IUCN, IUCN-WCPA and the World Heritage Centre. Following the World Parks Congress the objective will be to hold a workshop