World Heritage Review 61: World Heritage Forests

But forests are highly vulnerable. The current worldwide population explosion, together with civil unrest and the unregulated exploitation of timber and other assets, are among the major challenges facing world forests today. It has been estimated that simply by halving deforestation rates by 2030 we could significantly reduce annual global greenhouse gas emissions, thereby avoiding damage from climate change estimated at more than US$3.7 trillion in net present value terms. The benefits of protecting tropical forest ecosystems often outweigh the costs. The articles of this issue deal with a number of significant sites worldwide and provide a highly informative overview of the matter. 

In the lead article, Ashley DuVal and Peter Crane of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies examine how the World Heritage Convention highlights the vibrant relationship between the natural and cultural heritage of forests around the world, and how the Convention could contribute to the future of the world’s forests.

And as Conrad Aveling and Guy Debonnet point out, the Congo Basin forests are among the last regions where vast areas of uninterrupted rainforest allow biological processes to continue undisturbed. Some 14 per cent of these regions have been included in various protected areas, and while the diversity of species is high, density is relatively low, as a result of which even the largest of the great parks may not be large enough to ensure long-term conservation. This has led to a policy shift that now favours a ‘landscape approach’, ensuring that gene flows and ecosystem processes are maintained across the landscape. 

Keith Bensen’s article on efforts to ensure the conservation of the California redwood is highly instructive, as is Marc Patry’s account of the recent history of the Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve in Honduras, currently facing the intrusion of drug dealers who clear airstrips in the more secluded areas of the park and then use their drug money to clear more parklands for cattle ranching. On the Indonesian island of Sumatra, forest cover is currently diminishing at a rate of 2.5 per cent a year. Less than 40 per cent of the island’s original forests are still standing today. Yet the Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra provides some hope that not all will be lost. Robert Lee and his co-authors explain the challenges in conserving a World Heritage site in this area.

The World Heritage Forest Programme continues to play a significant role in such matters, as it is the only framework that can request the implementation of appropriate conservation measures and annually monitor the state of conservation of the inscribed sites.