Report assessed 228 listed World Heritage sites for adherence to natural values

World Heritage Sites such as the Western Ghats, Manas Wildlife Sanctuary, Kaziranga National Park and Sundarbans are facing significant conservation concerns, according to an International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) assessment.

The IUCN World Heritage Outlook report, released at the ongoing World Park Congress at Sydney, had assessed 228 World Heritage sites for natural values.

While none of the seven Indian sites qualified to be included in the ‘good’ category, the Great Himalayan National Park, Nanda Devi and Valley of Flowers National Parks and Keoladeo National Parks were assessed as ‘good with some concerns’. There were no Indian sites in the ‘critical’ category.

The report attempted to “recognise well-managed sites for their conservation efforts and encourage the transfer of good management practices between sites” and identified the “most pressing conservation issues affecting natural World Heritage sites and the actions needed to remedy those issues.”

The 39 serial sites of Ghats, which were inscribed in 2012 “amid some controversy”, are “under increasing population and developmental pressure that requires intensive and targeted management efforts to ensure that not only are existing values conserved, but that some past damage may be remediated,” it said.

The sites that are “traditionally conserved by small populations of indigenous people leading sustainable lifestyles”, face many challenges. The serial sites of Ghats are spread across Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra.

Assessing the threats faced by the sites, the IUCN experts observed that there was “extraordinary” pressure on biodiversity remains in the Western Ghats, given the “tremendous population pressure both within and surrounding the property.”

There exist a “large number of threats which severely threaten the Outstanding Universal Value of the property.” It would require coordinated “conservation responses at all levels including political, sociological and biological”, to overcome the challengers, it said.

The report also warned that the “constant requirements for development will continue to place the property under high threat. Climate change will probably exacerbate a system already under pressure,” it cautioned.

While the state of World Heritage values in the Ghats could be “considered as ‘good’ at the time of inscription, the current state and trend of World Heritage values are Data Deficient and targeted monitoring is required,” it said.