Many of the proposed sites are threatened by climate change, or its consequences: As the rapidly melting sea ice brings new human activities to Arctic waters, previously inaccessible areas are now opening up to cruise ships, cargo vessels, oil and gas development and commercial fishing.

“Science tells us that the best way of giving these marine ecosystems the best chance of making it through the changes underway is by creating large protected areas,” says Lisa Speer, a marine scientist and director of the International Oceans Program at the Natural Resources Defense Fund, an environmental NGO that co-produced the report.

So far, only two of the sites are already being considered for the list. In the far reaches of Norway’s Arctic waters, the Svalbard Archipelago is home to large breeding bird colonies and open-water areas used by endangered stocks of bowhead whale, Atlantic walrus, narwhal, and the Greenland shark. In the ocean adjacent to Canada’s Quttinirpaaq national park on Ellesmere Island, a narrow band of sea ice more than nine years old—the oldest and thickest in the Arctic—bumps up against the coastline, steadily shrinking.

Before a site can be nominated for inclusion on the World Heritage List, it must have held a spot on a country’s list of tentative sites for at least a year. If UNESCO approves the site, the more than 190 countries that take part in the World Heritage program vow to protect it. This new report lays the groundwork for governments and local communities to evaluate these areas and consider adding them to that list.

One of these areas, located in Canada’s Northern Baffin Bay, contains a large open water polynya that stays ice-free year round, a cafeteria of sorts for polar bears, narwhal, bowhead whales and other marine mammals. Tallurutiup Tariunga, also known as Lancaster Sound, is part of the bay and lies at the eastern entrance to the Northwest Passage. As Tallurutiup Tariunga becomes increasingly busy with ships, pleasure crafts and yachts, the location of narwhal, beluga, and walrus become less predictable, making it difficult for locals to plan their hunts and harvest food. Inuit living there have been trying to secure protection for the area for decades.

“People depend on the wildlife that surrounds their communities,” says Steven Lonsdale, the environmental and regulatory affairs advisor for the Qikiqtani Inuit Association, the group that represents the 14,000 Inuit living in the Baffin region. “It’s an abundant food source and major part of the diet. In terms of food security, they depend on it.”

The full list of the proposed sites is below:

The Bering Strait

Straddling the border of the United States and Russia, the Bering Strait is the Pacific gateway to the Arctic—and once formed a bridge for humans and other species traveling between North American and Eurasia during the last ice age. Millions of seabirds nest, forage and breed in the region and hundreds of thousands of whales, seals, walrus and other marine mammals migrate through the Strait each spring and fall, including humpback whales in transit from Mexico. But as the sea ice retreats and Arctic development grows, more and more ships are transiting the narrow 50-mile-wide passageway, raising the risk of collisions with wildlife, noise disturbance and the potential for oil spills.