Climate change threatens nature's masterpieces

The situation continues to deteriorate.

These are now a third of the 252 natural sites classified as World Heritage by Unesco which are threatened by climate change, underlines in its new report, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which brings together more than 1,400 organizations and governments.

This phenomenon dethrones invasive and exogenous species at the head of the dangers incurred by these exceptional natural spaces.

BREAKING NEWS: Climate change now top threat to natural World Heritage - IUCN report https://t.co/ciZj2ylhpv @IUCN_PA @UNESCO pic.twitter.com/aJF9rYSHK1

- IUCN (@IUCN) December 2, 2020

The Great Barrier Reef, the largest structure created by living organisms on Earth - threatened by ocean warming and acidification - joins the list of sites classified as "critical", as well as protected areas of Mexico in the Gulf of California, reports the IUCN.

In total, 94 sites are now at significant or critical risk due to a number of factors such as tourism, hunting, fire and water pollution, i.e. 32 more than when the last report was published. this kind in 2017.

About a third of the sites are at significant risk and 7% are now estimated to be in critical condition meaning “they urgently require additional and large-scale conservation measures” to be able to be saved.

Climate change poses a very high or high risk for 83 of these natural wonders.

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This report "reveals the transformations caused by climate change on these classified natural sites, from the melting of glaciers to the bleaching of corals, through more frequent and more serious fires and droughts", underlines the Director General of the IUCN, Bruno Oberlé in a press release.

Gigantic fires are currently ravaging Fraser Island in Australia, a World Heritage Site.

"This report underlines the urgency with which we must resolve these environmental challenges together on a global scale", warned Bruno Oberlé.

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And to invoke the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.

It has shown that the world community must “stand together and work together for the common good,” the report insists.

The impact of Covid-19

Work to carry out the new inventory began before the Covid-19 pandemic, which affects more or less severely almost the entire planet, but the IUCN has made a systematic inventory of its effect on classified natural sites by Unesco.

The organization estimates that 50 of them are affected by the pandemic and the restrictions associated with it, whether for good or bad.

In the positive column, "the most notable is the drop in the pressure exerted by tourist visits on these natural ecosystems", explains IUCN, stressing however that "the negative factors are numerous".

The closure of the sites causes a significant drop in income, but the restrictions put in place to prevent contagion have also had an effect on the staff responsible for providing surveillance, leaving the door open to illegal activities.

"These factors increase the risk of wildlife poaching and illegal use of natural resources," the report explains.

Despite all the dangers that threaten these exceptional sites, IUCN still found that 8 of them have seen an improvement since 2017.