Marine World Heritage: creating a globally more balanced and representative list

The World Heritage Convention provides the potential for a comprehensive policy framework that allows for identification, management, governance, and protection of the world s most outstanding natural marine areas. Benefits of World Heritage (WH) listing include increased international attention and technical cooperation, governmental support and improvements to management, and enhanced funding opportunities. There are currently only 46 (of 981 or 4.7%) World Heritage Sites (WHS) that have been inscribed for their outstanding marine values, and these marine WHS (mWHS) represent predominantly tropical as opposed to temperate and polar ecosystems. Forty-seven (76%) of the world's 62 nearshore biogeographic provinces do not contain any mWHS or contain a low (<1%) coverage that is unlikely to capture the full range of values and features present in these provinces. A large proportion of the world's offshore provinces, representing 40% of the global ocean, do not contain any mWHS. To fulfill the World Heritage Committee's Global Strategy for a Representative, Balanced and Credible World Heritage List, States are encouraged to increase efforts to identify and nominate marine sites of potential Outstanding Universal Value (OUV), especially in biogeographic regions that are not yet represented, or underrepresented, on the WH List. However, as the criteria and guidance for the Convention are based primarily on terrestrial systems, further guidance on using them in the marine context is provided here. It is proposed that physical oceanographic features be considered under criterion (viii) ‘geology and oceanography’, while biological oceanographic features be considered under criterion (ix) ‘ecological and biological processes’. Use of criteria (vii) ‘superlative phenomena’ and (x) ‘species’ can follow current guidance for terrestrial systems. Potential approaches that can help address gaps in biogeographic representation of marine WHS and create a more balanced and representative marine World Heritage List are outlined here. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

[1]  G. Powell,et al.  Terrestrial Ecoregions of the World: A New Map of Life on Earth , 2001 .

[2]  Jennifer L. Molnar,et al.  Marine Ecoregions of the World: A Bioregionalization of Coastal and Shelf Areas , 2007 .

[3]  Miklos D. F . Udvardy,et al.  A classification of the biogeographical provinces of the world , 1975 .

[4]  Tim Badman,et al.  Outstanding universal value : standards for Natural World Heritage , 2008 .

[5]  T. Brooks,et al.  Global Biodiversity Conservation Priorities: An Expanded Review , 2010 .

[6]  S. Chape,et al.  Review of the World Heritage network : biogeography, habitats and biodiversity : final draft , 2004 .

[7]  T. Badman,et al.  Terrestrial biodiversity and the World Heritage List : identifying broad gaps and potential candidate sites for inclusion in the natural World Heritage network , 2013 .

[8]  T. Brooks,et al.  Global Biodiversity Conservation Priorities , 2006, Science.

[9]  C. Mora,et al.  How Many Species Are There on Earth and in the Ocean? , 2011, PLoS biology.

[10]  D. Laffoley,et al.  The Bahrain action plan for marine World Heritage : identifying priorities for marine World Heritage and enhancing the role of the World Heritage Convention in the IUCN WCPA Marine Global Plan of Action for MPAs in our Oceans and Seas , 2010 .

[11]  D. Obura,et al.  Marine natural heritage and the World Heritage List : interpretation of World Heritage criteria in marine systems, analysis of biogeographic representation of sites, and a roadmap for addressing gaps , 2013 .

[12]  M. Spalding,et al.  Pelagic provinces of the world: A biogeographic classification of the world’s surface pelagic waters , 2012 .

[13]  M. Spalding,et al.  Protecting Marine Spaces: Global Targets and Changing Approaches , 2013 .

[14]  T. Brooks,et al.  Protected Areas and Effective Biodiversity Conservation , 2013, Science.

[15]  S. Sarkar,et al.  Systematic conservation planning , 2000, Nature.

[16]  J. Thorsell,et al.  A global overview of wetland and marine protected areas on the World Heritage List , 1997 .

[17]  T. Badman,et al.  Geological World Heritage : a global framework : a contribution to the global theme study of World Heritage Natural Sites , 2005 .

[18]  C. Ehler,et al.  Navigating the Future of Marine World Heritage: Results from the first World Heritage Marine Site Managers Meeting Honolulu, Hawaii, 1-3 December 2010 , 2011 .

[19]  C. Schmitt.  A Tough Choice: Approaches Towards the Setting of Global Conservation Priorities , 2011 .

[20]  S. Labadi.  A review of the Global Strategy for a balanced, representative and credible World Heritage List 1994–2004 , 2005 .

[21]  Protected Areas.  The World's greatest natural areas : an indicative inventory of natural sites of world heritage quality , 1982 .

[22]  B. Halpern,et al.  Global Priorities for Marine Biodiversity Conservation , 2014, PloS one.

[23]  A. Millar,et al.  Key biodiversity areas as globally significant target sites for the conservation of marine biological diversity , 2008 .