Today's Edition
ISIDORA CIRIC (ABU DHABI)
The conservation outlook of natural World Heritage sites has worsened for the first time since monitoring began, with just 57% of sites now assessed as having a positive future, down from 63% in 2020, according to the latest assessment by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Released at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi, the "World Heritage Outlook 4" draws on a decade of data and evaluates 271 natural and mixed sites worldwide. The report said that nearly 40% of sites, which are supposed to be among the best-protected on the planet, are now facing conservation concerns, and 17 have been classified as having a "critical" outlook.
Among those, only 52% of biodiversity-focused sites are now assessed as being in "good" or "low-concern" condition, compared to 71% in 2014. The decline in these high-biodiversity sites, the report noted, is especially concerning, given their outsized contribution to global conservation targets and their role as strongholds for species that are increasingly under pressure in other parts of the world.
Climate change remains the most widespread and fastest-growing threat, rated as high or very high in 43% of sites - an increase of 14% since 2020. Another growing concern is a sharp rise in sites reporting disease-related pressures, particularly those linked to plant and animal pathogens. This, according to IUCN experts, suggests that global warming is triggering secondary impacts that are not yet fully understood but are becoming more difficult to contain.
Many of the most serious threats to World Heritage sites now lie beyond their formal boundaries. The report added that 65% of sites assessed in 2025 were found to have insufficient capacity to address external risks such as watershed deterioration, air and water pollution, extractive activity or industrial encroachment. Finance remains the most frequently cited management gap, with 15% of all sites repeatedly flagged for inadequate or insecure funding since 2017.
Tourism pressures and infrastructure build-out follow suit, with recreational activities now ranked among the top global threats, and land-use change linked to residential expansion, industrial projects and mining affecting more sites than in the previous cycle.
While the authors are not arguing against access or development, they point to an uneven application of safeguards and poor enforcement of impact assessments and tourism management plans. This, they explain, leads to cumulative degradation that can gradually erode the values for which sites were inscribed.
Nevertheless, the report documents several cases where conservation outlooks have improved due to sustained, targeted interventions. In Central and West Africa, for instance, four sites moved from a "critical" to "significant concern" rating. Among the examples cited were Garamba and Salonga National Parks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where anti-poaching operations, community partnerships and improved monitoring of wildlife populations have begun to stabilise key species.
With less than five years left to meet the 2030 targets under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, including the headline goal of protecting 30% of land and sea, natural World Heritage sites are being held up as both a barometer of progress and a warning sign of where efforts are falling short.
The IUCN argues that maintaining or improving the outlook of these sites will require more than isolated success stories and will depend on a step change in how global conservation is financed, coordinated, and politically prioritised.
