13 November 2014: Over 60% of areas on the World Heritage List are likely to be well conserved over time and 54% are considered well managed, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) ‘World Heritage Outlook 2014: a conservation assessment of all natural World Heritage sites.’ The report is the first global assessment of the world’s 228 natural World Heritage sites.

“World Heritage sites have the most prestigious international designation,” explained IUCN’s Director General, Julia Marton Lefèvre. The report identifies the status of areas, with the aim of recognizing well-managed sites for their conservation efforts; encouraging sharing of good management practices between sites; identifying conservation issues facing sites and actions needed to address these issues; and promoting ways to achieve a positive conservation and management outlook for all sites.

The report tracks overall trends within World Heritage sites and assesses their current state of management, protection and threats. It also evaluates the state of World Heritage values, such as the scale of biodiversity and natural habitats, stability of ecosystems processes, geological features and viability of rare species populations. The report also includes a regional outlook section.

The report classifies the World Heritage sites as follows: 21% are classified as having a good conservation outlook; 42% are considered good with some concerns; 29% are assessed as having significant concerns; and 8% are classified as critical. On management, 9% of sites are classified as having highly effective management; 45% as mostly effective; 33% as facing some management concerns; and 13% of sites are classified under serious concern. The report underscores that effective management approaches can help sites achieve good outlooks despite threats.

Threats to the sites include agriculture, climate change, invasive alien species (IAS), logging, fishing, poaching and impacts from dams, tourism and other activities. IUCN urges large-scale interventions to protect the sites.

IUCN intends to update site assessments every three years. This outlook was released on the occasion of the IUCN World Parks Congress, which is taking from 12-19 November 2014, in Sydney, Australia. [IUCN Press Release] [Publication: World Heritage Outlook 2014: a conservation assessment of all natural World Heritage sites] [IISD RS coverage of IUCN World Parks Congress]