Water quality is among the biggest threats facing Everglades National Park/NPS, Brian Call

Urbanization, agricultural runoff, and water management in South Florida along with climate change and invasive species have combined to create a cocktail of threats to Everglades National Park, placing it among 17 natural World Heritage Sites deemed to have a “critical” conservation outlook by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Other threats facing the Everglades include rising sea levels, light and noise pollution, fire suppression, and roads and visitor traffic. In addition, ocean acidification, overfishing, large storms, droughts, and oil and gas development were highlighted as potential threats.

The IUCN World Heritage Outlook 2 – released last month as an update to the 2014 IUCN World Heritage Outlook report – assesses changes in the conservation prospects of all 241 natural World Heritage Sites. It examines the threats, protection, and management of the sites, and the state of their World Heritage values – the unique features which have earned them their prestigious World Heritage status.

The conservation outlook of Everglades remained critical, and the park is the only site in North America with such a dire outlook.

“Sites with a critical conservation outlook are severely threatened and require urgent, additional, and large-scale conservation measures, or their values may be lost,” the IUCN says in its report. “These sites face a range of threats and in many cases have low capacity to address them.”

The overall threat assessment for the Everglades was determined to be “very high,” with most of the park’s World Heritage values “deteriorating” amid some “losses that cannot be restored.”

“Current threats related to reduced water flows, water pollution, and shifting habitat are affecting the health of the site and the amount and quality of habitat. Some of these losses cannot be restored, as habitat features have taken decades to centuries to develop,” the report says. “Potential threats, including hurricanes, climate change, and ocean acidification, to the site are a high threat over all and are potentially being realized already. Current threats with a critical rating combined with potential that are of high concern result in nothing less than a critical rating for overall threats.”

Although the report notes protection and management efforts, it expresses concern about the park’s ability and resources to address the threats, particularly as so many come from outside park boundaries.

“The park is at the downstream end of the ecosystem, and decisions made regarding management at the top have not always been compatible with protecting the health of the bottom end,” the report says.

Everglades National Park is also the only World Heritage Site in the United States listed as “in danger” by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization.

“Natural World Heritage sites play a crucial role supporting local economies and livelihoods,” said Tim Badman, director of IUCN’s World Heritage Programme. “Their destruction can thus have devastating consequences that go beyond their exceptional beauty and natural value.”

Here is the conservation outlook for the other National Park Service units that are also World Heritage Sites:

• Carlsbad Caverns National Park: Good With Some Concerns
• Grand Canyon National Park: Good With Some Concerns
• Great Smoky Mountains National Park: Good With Some Concerns
• Hawaii Volcanoes National Park: Good
• Mammoth Cave National Park: Good With Some Concerns
• Olympic National Park: Good With Some Concerns
• Redwood National and State Parks: Good With Some Concerns
• Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park: Good With Some Concerns
• Wrangell-St. Elias and Glacier Bay national parks: Good With Some Concerns
• Yellowstone National Park: Good With Some Concerns
• Yosemite National Park: Good With Some Concerns

IUCN is the official advisory body on nature to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee. IUCN’s World Heritage Programme evaluates sites nominated for the World Heritage List, monitors the conservation of listed sites, promotes the World Heritage Convention as a leading global instrument for conservation, and provides support, advice, and training to site managers, governments, scientists and local communities.