UN Report - Case studies on Climat Change and World Heritage

a n d Wo r l d H e r i t a g e Case Studies on ClimateChange For more information contact: UNESCO World Heritage Centre 7, place de Fontenoy 75352 Paris 07 SP France Tel : 33 (0)1 45 68 15 71 Fax : 33 (0)1 45 68 55 70 E-mail : wh-info@unesco. org http://whc. unesco. org World Heritage Convention DesignbyRectoVerso0146241009 Printed on recycled paper There is general consensus that the climate of the planet is changing rapidly, and that human activities contribute significantly to this change. Climate change is now considered as one of the major environmental challenges of the twenty-first century. The Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, adopted by UNESCO in 1972, aims at ensuring that outstanding sites around the globe are effectively preserved and passed on to future generations. But this task becomes very challenging in a situation where, because of climate change, glaciers are melting; animal and plant species are migrating outside designated protected areas to adapt to their changing environment; pest infestation is spreading; coastal erosion is advancing with rising sea levels; frequency and intensity of storms is changing, and the Arctic Sea ice cover is reducing. Hence, World Heritage properties located in such environments are also threatened by these changes. The UNESCO World Heritage Centre, in partnership with States Parties to the Convention and various international organizations, and under the guidance of the World Heritage Committee, is taking several initiatives to protect and promote management of World Heritage in the face of climate change: a dedicated strategy was endorsed by the World Heritage Committee in July 2006 and a report on predicting and managing the effects of Climate Change on World Heritage was prepared. A policy document on the subject is under development and pilot projects and studies are going to be initiated. This publication presents several case studies from selected natural and cultural World Heritage sites around the globe in order to illustrate the impacts of climate change that have already been observed and those that can be expected in the future. For each of the featured sites, ongoing and planned adaptation measures are reviewed, to give an indication of what may be possible by way of management responses to the different situations. CaseStudiesonClimateChangeandWorldHeritage World Heritage Convention CC and WH cover 21/03/07 17:17 Page 1