Protected Areas and World Heritage

In 1996, IUCN's Natural Heritage Program initiated a project to prepare a global strategy for natural World Heritage sites. It was foreseen to prepare global overviews on World Heritage site coverage in the various biomes of the world (e.g. forests, wetlands, mountains, grasslands, etc.) and an overview of biodiversity values of World Heritage sites. The project would involve close co-operation with the World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC) where the world's major biodiversity and protected area database is located. Support for the conduct of these theme studies was generously provided by Australia's Department of Environment.

The first in this series of working papers was the global theme study on "Earth's Geological History - A Contextual Framework for Assessments of World Heritage Fossil Site nominations." This report was prepared over the course of a year by Professor Rod Wells of Flinders University and was made available to the World Heritage Committee in December, 1996. It provides a temporal view of where fossil records best display the record of life on earth (natural heritage criteria i).

The second in the series was an overview of World Heritage natural sites with wetland and marine values prepared by IUCN's Natural Heritage program in September, 1997. It reviews 77 World Heritage sites with significant wetland and marine values and describes over 40 wetland and marine areas which may merit consideration for future nomination on the World Heritage List. Many of these potential sites are located in areas with minimal World Heritage protection at the current time.

This working paper is the third in the series and focuses on forest protected areas on the World Heritage List. It was first initiated at the "International Conference on World Heritage Forests," held in Queensland in September, 1996, with a background paper by Jim Thorsell and Jim Paine. It will also serve as useful background to the "World Heritage Convention as an International Instrument for Biodiversity Conservation in Tropical Rainforests", to be held in Brestagi, Northern Sumatra, Indonesia in May, 1998.

The purpose of this working paper is twofold: first, to inventory forest protected areas on the World Heritage List which provides an overview of the current "coverage;" and second, to locate potential forest protected areas from various global regions for future inscription on the World Heritage List (gap areas). This overview identifies 61 forest protected areas on the World Heritage List and describes 25 forest protected areas which may merit consideration for future nomination. Thirty-seven of the 61 forest protected areas on the World Heritage List were included as World Heritage Sites with wetland and marine values (working paper #2), 15 categorised as major wetland sites and 22 as secondary. This overview will assist IUCN in making comparative evaluations and provide the World Heritage Committee with a firmer scientific basis for making decisions. It will also be of interest to State Parties as it will provide them with a global perspective which is useful when identifying potential World Heritage properties in their territories.

There are probably as many definitions of "forests" as there are sources. Although we all know a tree when we see it, defining a forest by type and amount of forest cover are difficult and oft-debated tasks. Moreover, a forest is a complex system of numerous species and ecological processes. Despite the biodiversity within forest ecosystems, most statistics have focused primarily on the amount of forest cover. The Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), in previous reports have defined forests as "ecological systems with a minimum of 10% crown cover of trees and/or bamboos, generally associated with wild flora and fauna and natural soil conditions and not subject to agricultural practices." In the case of developed countries, a forest is often defined by a minimum of 20% forest cover. The density and quality of species are also important characteristics to consider in defining forests, a topic which will be addressed in a future working paper on biodiversity values of World Heritage sites. For the purposes of this working paper, forest protected areas on the World Heritage List were included if the nominations of the respective State Parties or WCMC forest data revealed a substantial amount (defined in section III) of forest cover within the site.

According to recent estimates, over 35 million sq. km of forest cover remain in the world. Tropical forests comprise nearly 50% (17 million sq. km) of the remaining global forest, but have the highest rate of deforestation (4-8%) of the forest biomes. Central and South America contain 60% of the world's rainforest with the remaining portion being divided evenly between West Africa, Southeast Asia and the South Pacific. Tropical forests are located within an equatorial belt between 4 degrees north and south of the equator in areas with a constant temperature of 18-30 degrees Celsius and an evenly distributed rainfall of over 2,000m per year. This overview identifies tropical moist and tropical dry forest protected areas, which provide habitat for nearly 80% of the world's species.

Temperate forest comprises 8 million sq. km of forest cover and occurs within a belt between 32 and 60 degrees latitude. Temperate forests vary in composition and conditions, but usually contain open forests with beech, maple, oak and other deciduous trees. Temperate rainforest contains evergreen moist and deciduous trees and exists in a few coastal regions of the temperate zone. Only pockets of virgin growth temperate forests remain (2 to 3%) in Central Europe, Asia and North America, making them one of the most threatened forest biomes.

The remaining 10 million sq. km of global forest cover are the coniferous forests in the boreal zone which occur in the northern latitudes across Canada, Alaska, Scandinavia and Siberia above the temperate broad leaf zone. The boreal forest is not a uniform expanse of trees, but merges with tundra vegetation. Each of these forest biomes are important resources for local populations and as habitat for numerous flora and fauna species.

This working paper attempts to identify the forest protected areas on the current World Heritage List. As of 1996, 123 natural and mixed (natural/cultural) sites comprise the World Heritage List representing 62 countries. Many of these sites contain some forest, but only sites containing forest protected areas with significant forest cover were selected for this overview.

The indication of whether or not the amount of forest cover within each site was significant was based primarily on two criteria. The first, and most important source, was information regarding the type and amount of forest provided by the State Party in the nomination for World Heritage designation. The second source of information used to make this decision was derived from the WCMC database for each World Heritage site and forest database files. In the database files, forest cover is calculated on the basis of whether a 8km x 8km grid cell is more than 50% forested. In order to make mangrove forests, mixed mountain forest areas, and island system forest areas visible on a global scale, any grid cell containing these categories was classified as being entirely forested. A site was included in this overview if either or both of these sources revealed 20% or more forest cover within the site or if the amount of forest cover was a primary reason why the site was nominated and inscribed on the World Heritage List. This data can be unreliable since World Heritage sites represent small areas when overlayed with global forest data plots, but improved forest data for each World Heritage site is being completed by WCMC and will be included in future revisions of this working paper.

Based on this selection process, this working paper lists and describes 61 of the 123 World Heritage sites as containing significant forest protected areas. Therefore, for each of the 61 sites, either the information provided by the State Party in the site nomination stated that the forest component was a significant characteristic of the site or the forest data identified forest cover greater than 20% of the total size of the World Heritage site. When necessary, information on forest cover and forest type was also obtained from published articles on particular sites, as well as from observations and reports made from World Heritage site visits.

In order to present a harmonised overview, a broad, pragmatic and global forest classification system has been used for this working paper. Each national data set or map was translated into five forest classes: tropical moist; tropical dry; sub-tropic; temperate; and boreal. Moist forests in the tropics, which are synonymous with rain or humid forests, include lowland and montane rainforest, and seasonal monsoon forests. Dry forests generally seasonally deciduous, but may also include pine forests, particularly in Central America and the Caribbean. If a site contained a portion of two forest types or a type not listed, it was listed in the category with the largest percentage (Tables 2-6), however, a complete description of all forest types in each site has been included in the Annex 1.

Most World Heritage sites represent a large land area with multiple natural values. For this reason, many sites contain some forest area, but were not included in this inventory since the data revealed less than 20% forest cover within the site and/or the forest area was not a significant characteristic when considering the World Heritage site in its entirety. Examples of World Heritage sites not included in this overview for such reasons include: Tatsheshini-Alsek/Kluane National Park/Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Reserve/Glacier Bay National Park (white boreal forest); Mammoth Caves National Park (84 tree species and one of last remaining examples of eastern North America ancient forest); Wulingyuan Scenic and Historic Interest Area (maple, pine, oak and Chinese plum yew); The Lapponian Area (over 100,000ha of pristine pine and fir forest); Volcanoes of Kamchatka (boreal forest); Komodo National Park (tropical monsoon and quasi cloud forests); Grand Canyon (over 100,000ha of temperate forest); and Huascaran National Park (highest altitude tropical rain forest in the world). In fact, almost all natural World Heritage sites contain some forest component, however, only those considered highly significant have been included in this document.

The Overview is divided into two sections:

1. Forest protected areas on the World Heritage List (61 sites)

These 61 sites were categorised as forested protected areas on the World Heritage List based on the criteria stated above in section III. Although many sites were inscribed on the World Heritage List for meeting several criteria, the forest value for these sites was listed in the site nomination by the respective State Party as a major reason for inscription on the World Heritage List.

To assist in analysis, the following tables and figures are attached:

Table 1 Forest protected areas on the World Heritage List
Table 2 Tropical moist forest protected areas on the World Heritage List
Table 3 Tropical dry forest protected areas on the World Heritage List
Table 4 Sub-tropical forest protected areas on the World Heritage List
Table 5 Temperate forest protected areas on the World Heritage List
Table 6 Boreal forest protected areas on the World Heritage List
Table 7 Forest protected areas inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger
Table 8 Forest regions that contain protected areas which may merit consideration for World Heritage nomination

Figure 1 Distribution by realm of forest protected areas on World Heritage List
Figure 2 Total size of World Heritage sites with forest protected areas by realm
Figure 3 Distribution by size of World Heritage sites with forest protected areas
Figure 4 Number of tropical forest protected areas on the World Heritage List and total size of sites by biogeographic realm

Attached are also seven maps which show the location of forest protected areas on the World Heritage List. On a global scale all but the very largest World Heritage sites are too small to be represented clearly. For this reason, seven maps of the forest protected areas on the World Heritage List have been prepared, each representing biogeographic realms: Nearctic; Palearctic (two maps: West, East); Afrotropical; Indomalayan; Neotropical; and (Oceanian Australian; and Antarctic mapped together). These maps show the location of forested protected areas on the World Heritage List within each realm. Each map categorises the forest cover into tropical moist, tropical dry, sub-tropic, temperate, and boreal. World Heritage sites are listed according to their corresponding number in Annex 1 and Tables 2-6. Each site is listed by name in the map legend.

Decisions regarding which World Heritage sites to include in the overview were primarily based on information extracted from the WCMC database. The database contains a record for each World Heritage site and includes discussion on the physical features, vegetation, flora and fauna, and conservation value of each site. WCMC drafts and updates the Data Sheets on the database based on materials received from the State Party and other sources. Reference was also made to Global Biodiversity: Status of the Earth's Living Resources (1992), a WCMC publication. Data for the amount of forest within each World Heritage site was compiled from the WCMC database and GIS files which attempt to present a comprehensive picture of the extent of the remaining global forest cover and its relation with World Heritage protection. The data are accurate to approximately 1:1,000,000 scale and are based on maps and digital files from national and international sources from the early 1980s to early 1990. Much of this data is difficult to to overlay with World Heritage sites, but has recently been updated in World Conservation Monitoring Centre. Iremonger, S., C. Ravilious and T. Quinton (eds.) (1997) A Global Overview of Forest Conservation. CD-ROM. WCMC and CIFOR, Cambridge, U.K. The original sources differed greatly in their accuracy, classification, and the definition of the term "forest". There were errors in the amount of forest within certain World Heritage sites and comments regarding total forest coverare are invited to assist in a future update of this working paper. New data from WCMC will better define the amount of forest cover within each World Heritage site and will be printed in future revisions of this working paper.

In compiling this overview several IUCN publications were used, including Review of the Protected Areas System in the Indomalayan, Oceanian and Afrotropical Realms (1986); Conservation Atlas of Tropical Forests - vols I, II, and III (1991); The World Heritage Convention, Twenty Years Later (1993); IUCN Red Book (1994); Paradise on Earth (1995), The World's Centres of Plant Diversity - vol. I, II, III (1995); as well as articles, conference proceedings and secondary sources. Other valuable resources were the UNESCO publication of current Biosphere Reserves; "Forests in a Changing World," by Jeff Sayer (1992); Nature's Last Refugees (1992) by Robert Burton; FAO's Tropical Forest Action Plan; Nature in Danger: Threatened Habitats and Species (1993) by Noel Simon and WCMC; and The Last Frontier Forests (1997) by the World Resources Institute; and various other articles and national forest website information.

"Humans" have occupied and relied upon forest areas for thousands of years. This relationship continues today as humans become even more dependant on forests as an important resource economic, cultural, ecological and recreational resource and essential habitat for numerous threatened and endangered species of flora and fauna. Some of the most notable services and products provided by forests include: climate control, shelter, food, clothing, fuel, medicines, building materials, water quality, storm protection, and habitat for fauna.

Despite their importance, forests remain among the world's most threatened biomes. Nearly 50% of the earth's original forest have been lost, mainly in the past three decades. Morevover, only 20% of original forest cover remain in large tracts of undisturbed forest, of which 70% is located within Russia, Canada and Brazil. A mere 3% of these large undisturbed tracts are temperate forests. Equally as threatened are tropical moist forests, which have lost 50% forest cover over the last few decades to plantations, grazing or scrubland. Each year, some 10 to 50 million ha (300,000ha per day) of virgin forest are lost. With over 50% of all terrestrial species inhabiting the world's forests, this loss of habitat is resulting in massive species extinction as well as soil erosion, loss of biodiversity and climate change.

Accessible tropical forest areas have virtually all been logged, except for pockets in Amazonia, Central Africa, and remote parts of insular Asia. Much of the remaining forest area in the tropics has increasingly been cleared or transformed into second growth or timber plantations. Over the last century tropical deforestation has been responsible for 125 billion tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere which is over half the amount contributed by fossil fuels combustion. Deforestation is a complex problem stemming from a number of economic, social and ecological factors. Threats to forests are numerous and vary depending on location, but include: commercial logging; clearing for agriculture and grazing, dams, mining, institutional weaknesses, inequitable land distribution, poverty, and in some cases war and civil strife. As a result to many of these threats, seven of the 61 forest protected areas included in this overview have been placed on the List of World Heritage Sites in Danger (Table 7). This suggests that inscription on the World Heritage List does not necessarily guarantee effective stewardship.

Protection for forest areas can be achieved on many scales; from local practices, to national legislation, to international recognition through inscription as a Biosphere Reserve and/or on the World Heritage List. Eighteen of the 61 World Heritage sites included in this overview are also designated Biosphere Reserves, including nine of the 30 tropical forest protected areas. Over the past few years there have been achievements in protecting forests, but the situation facing the earth's forest areas remains a global conservation concern (Table 1). Less than 10% of the world's remaining forest cover is legally protected. Likewise, a mere 4% of the remaining tropical moist forests are legally protected, with very few countries having over 10% of their tropical moist forests protected. Only Burundi, Singapore, Australia and Sri Lanka have over 50% of their remaining forests under protection.

Despite advances in the capacity to make a more accurate assessment of the amount and type of forest remaining in the world, statistics on the amount of global forests and types of forest remain mere estimates. WCMC and others are in the process of compiling data to gain more precise global data. There are more accurate sources of information regarding the amount/percentage of forest remaining in individual countries or for specific forest types. Whatever the statistics, it is generally agreed that the rate of deforestation is high and that conservation of forest protected areas is a global conservation priority. As "humans" continue to learn more about their demands on the environment, there is an increasing need to inventory forest areas that have received international protection through the World Heritage Convention. Furthermore, it is important to identify forest areas in the world with minimal protection (gap areas) and list protected forest areas which may merit future nomination on the World Heritage List.

From this overview of 61 forest protected areas inscribed on the World Heritage List, it is clear that there remain several other important forest areas which may be suitable for consideration for World Heritage nomination. A preliminary list of 25 prospective forest protected areas with potential for World Heritage inscription is listed and described in Table 8. The main criteria used in complying the list of potential forest areas which may merit future nomination for the World Heritage List were the World Heritage Operational Guidelines 43-45, IUCN (Annex 2), IUCN forest program staff and publications reviewing forest protected areas, primarily in regions with minimal World Heritage protection at the present time. This is certainly not an exhaustive list, but is an example of sites located in some of the gap areas currently not represented on the World Heritage List. Omissions of potential sites from Table 9 may not have been due to the lack of forest values, but rather because there were already other forest protected areas inscribed on the World Heritage List located in that particular region.

Upon review of the forest protected areas inscribed on the World Heritage List (Table 1 and the maps), a gap analysis indicates that a limited number of forest protected areas exist on the World Heritage List at the present time within Amazonia (Neotropical Realm), portions of the Indomalayan Realm, the Caribbean (although a forest site in Dominica was nominated and recommended for inscription this year), the boreal regions of the Palearctic Realm, and no sites exist in the Oceanian Realm (Papua New Guinea or the North and South Pacific).

Table 1 lists the 61 forest protected areas which are inscribed on the World Heritage List. Each biogeographical realm is represented except the Oceanian. Otherwise, the division is quite balanced between most of the realms with 10 or more sites located in each the Nearctic (10), Palearctic (14), Afrotropical (13) and Neotropical Realm (11). (Figure 1 and 2). However, these four realms contain 48 of the 61 sites (nearly 80%), whereas only 13 sites (20%) are located in the four remaining realms (Figure 1). A biogeographical balance in the location of forest protected areas is not only politically equitable, but is beneficial to maintain a healthy global biodiversity and conservation of flora and fauna species. By inventorying current coverage of forest protected areas on the World Heritage List and identifying gap areas for future nomination, it is hoped to help create a balanced world system of the most outstanding forest protected areas.

Four additional sites (Sundarbans in Bangladesh, Mount Kenya in Kenya, the Nature Reserve El Triunfo in Mexico, and Morne Trois Pitons National Park in Dominica) were nominated by the respective State Parties and recommended for inscription by the World Heritage Bureau at the June, 1997 meeting in Paris. If approved by the December, 1997, World Heritage Committee these sites would be included in Table 1 as forest protected areas inscribed on the World Heritage List.

The 61 protected forest areas on the World Heritage List were divided into five forest categories in order to show the range of forest type protected by World Heritage and to indicate which areas may merit future nomination (Tables 2-6). Tropical forest protected areas comprise 30 of the 61 (50%) forest areas inscribed on the World Heritage List (Table 2 and 3). These 30 sites contain significant tropical forest cover which was a primary reason for the nomination and inscription of the site on the World Heritage List. 13 tropical forest sites, comprising nearly 13 million ha, are located in the Afrotropical Realm (Figure 4). Although four of the Afrotropical forest sites are located within the Democratic Republic of Congo, nine countries are represented by the 13 sites (Table 2). A diverse distribution is evident in the Neotropical Realm where nine countries are represented by 10 sites (Table 2) and comprise nearly 8 million ha (Figure 4). The Indomalayan Realm has five sites totalling less than a million ha, which is a small proportion of the actual amount of forest within this realm.

Table 2 and 3 indicate the distribution of tropical moist and tropical dry forest protected areas on the World Heritage List. These sites are also listed in Table 1, but further reveal that 25 sites contain tropical moist forest and 5 sites are tropical dry forest areas. Sub-tropical forest protected areas comprise 7 of the 61 sites and cover less than one million ha of forest protected area from four different biogeographic realms (Table 4). Temperate forest protected areas are better represented with 17 sites on the World Heritage List, 10 of which are located in China and the USA. On the other hand, only six boreal forest protected areas are on the World Heritage List (Table 6), but they cover nearly 17 million ha of forest, the largest of the five forest biomes addressed in this overview. Mention should be made regarding mangrove forest areas on the World Heritage List. The global overview of wetland and marine World Heritage sites identified 15 sites containing mangroves of which seven are included in this overview of forest protected areas on the World Heritage List: Rio Platano Biosphere Reserve (Honduras); Sundarbans (India); Sian Ka'an (Mexico); Darien/Los Katios National Parks (Panama/Colombia; and Kakadu National Park and Fraser Island (Australia). The mangrove forest of these seven sites is mentioned in the site descriptions (Annex 1) and is indicated by red shading on each map.

The size distribution of forest protected areas inscribed on the World Heritage List (Figures 2, 3 and 4) are disparate with an expansive range 19.5ha forest in Vallee de Mai Nature Reserve to the nine million ha Lake Baikal. The entire size of the World Heritage site was used in tabulating Figures 2, 3 and 4 instead of merely the amount of forest cover. For example, data shows that one million of ha surround Lake Bakail within the World Heritage site, but the entire nine million hectares of the site was tabulated in Figures 2 and 3, which is the majority of the 12 million hectares within the Palearctic Realm (Figure 2). In contrast, the six sites within the Indomalayan Realm comprise less than one million hectares. Overall size of the site is shown since it is important to protect a large area of forest in order to include a buffer zone and as much habitat for species diversity as possible within the larger protected area. Over 50% of the sites are a minimum of 100,000ha with 23 being over 500,000 and 12 over one million ha. Only 2 of the 61 sites are less than 10,000ha (Figure 3). Figure 4 focuses on the 30 tropical forest protected areas on the World Heritage List and shows both the total number of sites within the four tropical realms and the total size (in millions hectares) of the 30 sites.

IUCN welcomes comments on this working paper and suggestions on other potential World Heritage sites. Such comments and information will be useful in preparation of future revisions of this working paper. In an era of the transformation of forests for economic development and agricultural production, the need to protect the world's forests is more important than ever.

We would like to acknowledge the assistance of Natarajan Ishwaran of UNESCO World Heritage Centre; Jim Paine, Simon Blyth and Corrina Ravilious of WCMC; and Maryse Mahy of Ramsar for translation of the executive summary into French. We also acknowledge the assistance of Jeff McNeely, Simon Rietbergen and Andrea Finger-Stich, of IUCN; the WWF forest program staff; and the Australian Department of Environment for their generous support towards the production of this document.