The planet’s wildlife has collapsed 73% since the 1970sdragged down by deforestation, climate change and the accelerated loss of natural habitats around the world. However, within the territories protected by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), biodiversity resists with remarkable strength, even in the midst of an environmental crisis that does not let up.
This is revealed by a historic report that, for the first time, analyzes the entire UNESCO network as a single global protection system, instead of examining each site in isolation, offering an unprecedented perspective on its true conservation scope and its decisive role in the face of global ecological collapse.
From coral reefs to mountains, forests, wetlands or landscapes shaped over centuries by human communities, these places have become much more than heritage symbols. They are life reserves, carbon deposits, refuges for unique species and territories where a fragile balance between nature and human activity still persists.
The study, titled Communities and nature in UNESCO-designated sites: local and global contributions, examines more than 13 million square kilometers – an area larger than China and India combined – spread across 2,260 sites. For the authors of the report the conclusion is clear, “when nature is protected, nature protects in return.”
A strength for biodiversity
The figures are revealing. These “sanctuaries” host more than 60% of all mapped species on Earth, and four out of ten of them do not exist anywhere else on the planet. If their habitats disappeared, these species would become extinct forever.
“The results are clear, UNESCO sites are delivering results for both people and nature,” he says. the organization’s general director, Khaled El-Enany. “Within these territories, communities thrive, world heritage endures and biodiversity is maintained, while collapsing elsewhere.”
Its role is not limited to fauna and flora. These ecosystems store around 240 gigatonnes of carbon—the equivalent of nearly 20 years of current global emissions. Its destruction would release that carbon into the atmosphere, functioning as a true climate bomb that would make international objectives unattainable.
One of the most significant findings of the report is that these territories are far from being uninhabited spaces. Almost 900 million people – one in ten in the world – live in them. They are also reservoirs of culture, more than a thousand languages have been documented, and a quarter of them coincide with the lands of indigenous peoples, a proportion that exceeds 45% in Africa and Latin America.
The message is as clear as that the earth cannot be protected without those who have been its guardians for millennia. Furthermore, the benefit is not only ecological, about 10% of the world’s GDP is generated in or around these areas, proof that conservation and economic prosperity can form a good pairing, going hand in hand.
A network under threat
However, despite these results, the report warns that “the lifeline is wearing out.” Almost 90% of sites face severe environmental stress, and in the last decade climate risks – fires, floods – have increased by 40%. Experts estimate that, if this trend continues, one in four UNESCO “sanctuaries” could reach a “point of no return” before 2050, with the disappearance of glaciers, the collapse of coral reefs and forests that would stop absorbing carbon and start emitting it.
The report insists, however, that it is not too late; for every degree of warming avoided, the number of areas at risk of total collapse could be reduced by half before the end of the century.
For this reason, UNESCO calls for “increasing global ambition” and asks governments to stop treating these spaces as simple tourist attractions and recognize them as “strategic assets” in the climate fight. “It is an urgent call to recognize UNESCO sites as strategic assets in the fight against climate change,” underlines El-Enany, its director general.
The proposed roadmap combines three axes: restoring damaged ecosystems, cooperating beyond national borders to protect migratory fauna and, above all, placing indigenous peoples and local communities at the forefront of conservation.
For UNESCO and by way of conclusion, “investing today in these places is not just saving a park or a monument, it is protecting the future of the planet.”