The Role of the World Heritage Convention in Protecting Natural Areas

Hazen, Helen

The World Heritage Convention of 1972 has been one of the most visible international agreements related to environmental and cultural conservation over the past thirty years. The research presented here focuses on the convention's role in environmental protection via its natural and mixed World Heritage Sites. Approximately 7.5 percent of the world's land surface comprises "protected areas" for environmental conservation, and 12 percent of this area is designated as natural and mixed World Heritage Sites. Despite its impressive coverage at the global level, the operation and effects of the convention are generally poorly understood by the public, conservation practitioners, and scholars. This research analyzes the convention's role in protecting natural areas and assesses the extent to which it meets its stated goals. The third paper explores the implementation and operation of the United Nations World Heritage Convention at natural World Heritage Sites in the United States. Through in-depth interviews with expert informants and a questionnaire survey of 406 visitors at four US national parks, the study considers whether combining national and international conservation status provides added value for protected areas or leads to confusion and unnecessary overlap. Although generally very supportive of the Convention, the majority of expert informants interviewed could point to few tangible benefits of inscription. The major disadvantage noted by key informants was hostility to the programme from a conservative fringe in the US, which fears that international involvement will undermine national sovereignty. This concern was also reflected in questionnaire responses, which revealed distrust of the Convention among a minority of visitors to the study sites, particularly among domestic tourists. Questionnaire responses also revealed relatively low levels of familiarity with the World Heritage Programme among national park visitors, as well as misunderstandings of its operation. These issues could be addressed through improved education and publicity about the Programme.