A Wilderness Approach under the World Heritage Convention

A review of global wilderness area identification since the 21st century

Wilderness areas are natural landscape elements that are relatively undisrupted by human activity and play a critical role in maintaining ecological equilibrium, preserving naturalness, and ensuring ecosystem resilience. Since 2000, monitoring of global wilderness areas has increased owing to the availability of spatial map data and remote sensing imagery related to human activity and/or human footprint. Progress has been made in the remote sensing of wilderness areas by relying on available historical literature (e.g., published papers, books, and reports). However, to our knowledge, a synthesis of wilderness area research from a remote sensing perspective has not yet been performed. In this preliminary review, we discuss the concept of wilderness in different historical eras and systematically summarize dynamic wilderness monitoring at local, national, and global scales, available remotely sensed indicators, disparities and commonalities in identification methods, and mapping uncertainties. Finally, since this field remains in its initial stage owing to a lack of unified standards and vertical/horizontal comparisons, we present insights into future research directions, particularly with regard to remote sensing. The findings of this review may help to improve the overall understanding of current wilderness patterns (i.e., increases/decreases) and the mechanisms by which they change, as well as provide guidance for global nature conservation programs.

Progress on the Integrity Protection in the Natural World Heritage Site and Agroforestry Development in the Buffer Zone: An Implications for the World Heritage Karst

In the face of increasing development pressure, how to fulfill the obligations under the World Cultural and Natural Heritage Convention and maintain the integrity of the Natural World Heritage Site (NWHS) is a major problem to be solved at present. Agroforestry (AF) development in the buffer zone maintains the integrity of NWHS and promotes sustainable ecological and economic development in the buffer zone. Still, few studies on the knowledge system of integrity protection of NWHS and AF development in the buffer zone research have been conducted. To fill this gap, this study conducts a systematic literature review based on 128 related articles retrieved from the Web of Science (WoS) database and the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) database. Firstly, quantitative studies were conducted to analyze the annual numbers, content and study regions of the published literature. Secondly, the main research progress and achievements of integrity protection of WNHS and AF development in the buffer zone are classified and summarized. On this basis, this paper proposed key scientific issues that remain to be addressed in future, as well as exploring the implications for the World Heritage (WH) karst. This study is a scientific reference for the balanced development of NWHS integrity protection and AF in the buffer zone.

Wilderness forms and their implications for global environmental policy and conservation

With the intention of securing industry-free land and seascapes, protecting wilderness entered international policy as a formal target for the first time in the zero draft of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework under the Convention on Biological Diversity. Given this increased prominence in international policy, it is timely to consider the extent to which the construct of wilderness supports global conservation objectives. We evaluated the construct by overlaying recently updated cumulative human pressure maps that offer a global-scale delineation of industry-free land as wilderness with maps of carbon stock, species richness, and ground travel time from urban centers. Wilderness areas took variable forms in relation to carbon stock, species richness, and proximity to urban centers, where 10% of wilderness areas represented high carbon and species richness, 20% low carbon and species richness, and 3% high levels of remoteness (>48 h), carbon, and species richness. Approximately 35% of all remaining wilderness in 2013 was accessible in <24 h of travel time from urban centers. Although the construct of wilderness can be used to secure benefits in specific contexts, its application in conservation must account for contextual and social implications. The diverse characterization of wilderness under a global environmental conservation lens shows that a nuanced framing and application of the construct is needed to improve understanding, communication, and retention of its variable forms as industry-free places.

Assessing the status of existing and tentative marine World Heritage areas reveals opportunities to better achieve World Heritage Convention goals

The 1972 World Heritage Convention (WHC) and 1994 Global Strategy aim to preserve the outstanding universal value of internationally important cultural and natural sites within a "representative, balanced and credible" network of highly-protected areas. Increasing human pressures and shortfalls in representation have been documented across the World Heritage network, particularly in terrestrial and cultural sites, threatening the integrity and primary goals of the WHC. However, the conservation status of current and tentative (i.e., proposed) marine natural World Heritage areas (mnWHA) remains relatively unknown. We assessed the extent of recent (2013) and historical (2008-2013) cumulative human impacts and several metrics of representation (country, continent, ecoregion, wilderness, and 'at-risk' species) within existing and tentative mnWHAs. We found moderate yet increasing cumulative human impacts across most existing sites, and high or very high impacts across the majority of tentative sites. Climate change impacts comprised nearly 75% of impact scores, on average, and differences between land- and marine-based impacts across sites could help prioritise management decisions. Over 75% of marine ecoregions and 80% of 'at-risk' species considered in this study have no representation within the existing sites. We outline how prioritizing representation across tentative sites for future World Heritage listing could greatly increase these metrics. We urge the WHC to adopt quantitative, systematic and transparent evaluations of how current and tentative sites contribute to the overarching goals of maintaining a representative World Heritage network and preserving outstanding universal value for future generations.

A Study on Optimal Agroforestry Planting Patterns in the Buffer Zone of World Natural Heritage Sites

As the protection layer of world natural heritage sites, the buffer zone should enable economic development while protecting the environment. To carry out agricultural activities in the buffer zone, it is necessary to balance agricultural development and environmental protection. In addition, the development of agroforestry has the benefits of developing the economy, maintaining biodiversity, and protecting the environment. In order to promote the coordination of environmental protection and community economic development, it is particularly important to scientifically select agroforestry planting patterns in the buffer zone of world natural heritage sites. This study utilized a mixed-methods research approach that included qualitative and quantitative research. Taking the buffer zone of Shibing Karst Heritage Site in southern China as an example, based on the seven agroforestry planting patterns surveyed in the buffer zone of the world natural heritage site, the four dimensions of net output value, carbon emission, environmental cost, and comprehensive livelihood score of different agroforestry planting patterns were calculated. The sorting scores of the values were calculated as Borda numbers. The sorting scores of the seven agroforestry planting patterns were B(A1) = 17, B(A2) = 18, B(A3) = 8, B(A4) = 8, B(A5) = 14, B(A6) = 12, and B(A7) = 7. The results showed that the priority sequence of seven agroforestry patterns was A2 > A1 > A5 > A6 > A3 = A4 > A7. A2 was the best among the seven agroforestry planting patterns, and A7 ranked last. The results can provide a quantitative evaluation basis for scientific optimization of agroforestry development planting patterns, and provide a reference for promoting the protection of world natural heritage.

Mountains as a Global Heritage: Arguments for Conserving the Natural Diversity of Mountain Regions

This concise review posits the urgent need for conserving the natural diversity of mountain environments by envisioning mountains as a global natural heritage. Mountains are recognized as cradles of biodiversity and for their important ecosystem services. Mountains also constitute the second most popular outdoor destination category at the global level after islands and beaches. However, in the current age of accelerating global environmental change, mountain systems face unprecedented change in their ecological characteristics, and consequent effects will extend to the millions who depend directly on ecosystem services from mountains. Moreover, growing tourism is putting fragile mountain ecosystems under increasing stress. This situation requires scientists and mountain area management stakeholders to come together in order to protect mountains as a global heritage. By underlining the salient natural diversity characteristics of mountains and their relevance for understanding global environmental change, this critical review argues that it is important to appreciate both biotic and abiotic diversity features of mountains in order to create a notion of mountains as a shared heritage for humanity. Accordingly, the development of soft infrastructure that can communicate the essence of mountain destinations and a committed network of scientists and tourism scholars working together at the global level are required for safeguarding this shared heritage.

A Qualitative Exploratory Analysis of Ecological Integrity for Safeguarding World Natural Heritage Sites: Case Study of Shiretoko Peninsula, Japan

This article reports the findings of an exploratory study on the complexity and challenges of managing UNESCO World Natural Heritage Sites (WNHS). Despite their protected status, the majority of the WNHS currently face severe anthropogenic stress. While several studies have analyzed this scenario with spatial analysis and review of global trends, this research provides a qualitative analysis of ongoing fragmentation and impact in a specific site by employing the Ecological Integrity (EI) concept to the Shiretoko Peninsula WNHS in Japan. Insights from key scientific literature are synthesized with those from research and monitoring of the Blakiston’s Fish Owl (a keystone species). Findings indicate that ecosystems of Shiretoko WNHS have not sufficiently recovered from the intensive anthropogenic disruption in the 20th century and in some cases face novel stressors from tourism development after the inscription. Besides, ongoing construction of roads and facilities affects fine-scale heterogeneity in the surrounding landscape. The findings highlight the urgent need of protecting lower trophic level species, stream and forest restoration, and restricting infrastructure development. This implies that WNHS managers must implement measures to meaningfully offset anthropogenic stress on EI, and WNHS management should be integrated with the management of its surrounding landscapes.

Gaps and opportunities for the World Heritage Convention to contribute to global wilderness conservation

Wilderness areas are ecologically intact landscapes predominantly free of human uses, especially industrial-scale activities that result in substantial biophysical disturbance. This definition does not exclude land and resource use by local communities who depend on such areas for subsistence and bio-cultural connections. Wilderness areas are important for biodiversity conservation and sustain key ecological processes and ecosystem services that underpin planetary life-support systems. Despite these widely recognized benefits and values of wilderness, they are insufficiently protected and are consequently being rapidly eroded. There are increasing calls for multilateral environmental agreements to make a greater and more systematic contribution to wilderness conservation before it is too late. We created a global map of remaining terrestrial wilderness following the established last-of-the-wild method, which identifies the 10% of areas with the lowest human pressure within each of Earth's 62 biogeographic realms and identifies the 10 largest contiguous areas and all contiguous areas >10,000 km² . We used our map to assess wilderness coverage by the World Heritage Convention and to identify gaps in coverage. We then identified large nationally designated protected areas with good wilderness coverage within these gaps. One-quarter of natural and mixed (i.e., sites of both natural and cultural value) World Heritage Sites (WHS) contained wilderness (total of 545,307 km² ), which is approximately 1.8% of the world's wilderness extent. Many WHS had excellent wilderness coverage, for example, the Okavango Delta in Botswana (11,914 km² ) and the Central Suriname Nature Reserve (16,029 km² ). However, 22 (35%) of the world's terrestrial biorealms had no wilderness representation within WHS. We identified 840 protected areas of >500 km² that were predominantly wilderness (>50% of their area) and represented 18 of the 22 missing biorealms. These areas offer a starting point for assessing the potential for the designation of new WHSs that could help increase wilderness representation on the World Heritage list. We urge the World Heritage Convention to ensure that the ecological integrity and outstanding universal value of existing WHS with wilderness values are preserved.

Temporally inter-comparable maps of terrestrial wilderness and the Last of the Wild

Wilderness areas, defined as areas free of industrial scale activities and other human pressures which result in significant biophysical disturbance, are important for biodiversity conservation and sustaining the key ecological processes underpinning planetary life-support systems. Despite their importance, wilderness areas are being rapidly eroded in extent and fragmented. Here we present the most up-to-date temporally inter-comparable maps of global terrestrial wilderness areas, which are essential for monitoring changes in their extent, and for proactively planning conservation interventions to ensure their preservation. Using maps of human pressure on the natural environment for 1993 and 2009, we identified wilderness as all 'pressure free' lands with a contiguous area >10,000 km2. These places are likely operating in a natural state and represent the most intact habitats globally. We then created a regionally representative map of wilderness following the well-established 'Last of the Wild' methodology; which identifies the 10% area with the lowest human pressure within each of Earth's 60 biogeographic realms, and identifies the ten largest contiguous areas, along with all contiguous areas >10,000 km2.

Identifying local-scale wilderness for on-ground conservation actions within a global biodiversity hotspot

Protecting wilderness areas (WAs) is a crucial proactive approach to sustain biodiversity. However, studies identifying local-scale WAs for on-ground conservation efforts are still very limited. This paper investigated the spatial patterns of wilderness in a global biodiversity hotspot – Three Parallel Rivers Region (TPRR) in southwest China. Wilderness was classified into levels 1 to 10 based on a cluster analysis of five indicators, namely human population density, naturalness, fragmentation, remoteness, and ruggedness. Only patches characterized by wilderness level 1 and ≥1.0 km² were considered WAs. The wilderness levels in the northwest were significantly higher than those in the southeast, and clearly increased with the increase in elevation. The WAs covered approximately 25% of TPRR’s land, 89.3% of which was located in the >3,000 m elevation zones. WAs consisted of 20 vegetation types, among which temperate conifer forest, cold temperate shrub and alpine ecosystems covered 79.4% of WAs’ total area. Most WAs were still not protected yet by existing reserves. Topography and human activities are the primary influencing factors on the spatial patterns of wilderness. We suggest establishing strictly protected reserves for most large WAs, while some sustainable management approaches might be more optimal solutions for many highly fragmented small WAs.