- UNESCO’s first global biodiversity and climate assessment finds 98% of its 2,200+ sites have faced climate extremes since 2000, with a 1°C (1.8°F) rise by 2050 expected to triple exposure.
- Around 20% of sites overlap Indigenous lands, putting communities at the frontline of risks like wildfires, droughts, glacial retreat and biodiversity loss.
- Examples of impacts already unfolding include wildfires at UNESCO sites in Brazil and Australia, and shrinking glaciers in sites in Denmark, Tanzania, Argentina and China.
- UNESCO launched a live monitoring platform, Sites Navigator, integrating more than 40 datasets with near-real-time alerts to help policymakers, Indigenous communities and investors respond and plan for resilience.
Nearly all of UNESCO’s more than 2,200 World Heritage Sites, Biosphere Reserves and Geoparks have already endured climate extremes over the past two decades. That’s according to initial data from the first ever global biodiversity and climate assessment unveiled at the UNESCO World Congress of Biosphere Reserves, held in Hangzhou, China, from Sept. 22-26.
The initial data were launched at a side event of the congress, ahead of the report’s full release, and underscore the escalating pressures on places that Indigenous peoples and local communities depend on for food, culture and livelihoods.
“[UNESCO sites are] among the most important places on the planet. But these sites are under pressure,” said Tales Carvalho Resende, an associate program specialist at UNESCO, who presented the findings and a new monitoring platform, UNESCO Sites Navigator.
Indigenous peoples on the frontlines
The assessment found that 98% of UNESCO sites have faced at least one climate-related extreme since 2000. If global temperatures rise by just 1° Celsius (1.8° Fahrenheit) by 2050, their exposure to climate extremes could triple.
This impacts Indigenous peoples, said sources, as about 20% of UNESCO sites overlap with their lands and territories. Globally, UNESCO sites support around 1.2 billion people — nearly 15% of the world’s population — many of them Indigenous or local communities who rely directly on these lands and waters for sustenance and cultural practices.
Resende said the evidence of change is already visible. He cited massive wildfires in Brazil’s Pantanal wetlands and blazes in Australia that burned through UNESCO sites. He also pointed to retreating glaciers at UNESCO sites worldwide — from Ilulissat Icefjord in Denmark to Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, as well as other sites in Argentina and China.
“All projections indicate that by 2050, under any climate scenario, all glaciers in Africa will [likely] disappear,” Resende said.
The assessment also spotlights 11 globally exceptional sites where Indigenous stewardship is inseparable from biodiversity. In Tanzania’s Serengeti–Ngorongoro area, the Maasai maintain pastoral traditions that balance livestock with wildlife in the path of the famed wildebeest migration.
In South America, the Qhapaq Ñan, the Andean road system, still anchors Indigenous rituals like the pilgrimage to the Lord of Qoyllurit’i. Mexico’s Tehuacán–Cuicatlán Valley, the cradle of maize domestication, showcases millennia-old irrigation and farming practices.
In Europe, the Pyrenees link pastoral lifeways with religious routes like Santiago de Compostela, while in Portugal’s Azores, islanders turned whaling into whale watching, reflecting evolving bonds between culture and environment, said the authors of the initial briefing.
The initial data also found that UNESCO sites have lost more than 30 million hectares (74 million acres) of tree cover since 2000 — a combined area the size of Italy. Four-fifths of that loss occurred in biosphere reserves, largely due to permanent agriculture, which accounted for 45%.
Land-use choices are expected to strongly shape biodiversity outcomes. If current practices remain unchanged, UNESCO warns of widespread biodiversity decline in these protected landscapes by 2050. By contrast, sustainable land-use approaches could yield conservation gains up to five times greater.
A new tool for action
To support decision-making, UNESCO also introduced the Sites Navigator, a live geospatial platform that brings together more than 40 data sets on climate, biodiversity and socioeconomic conditions.
The platform allows users to visualize overlaps across biosphere reserves, heritage sites and geoparks; track events like wildfires, droughts and floods in near real time; and explore projections of climate impacts decades ahead. It also features an alert system designed to trigger rapid responses to emergencies that might otherwise cause irreversible damage.
“The takeaway from all these images is clear: climate impacts are already here,” Resende said. “That is why it is crucial to have tools to monitor UNESCO sites. And that is the main reason we developed the UNESCO Sites Navigator.”
He noted that in Indonesia’s Gunung Gede Pangrango National Park, the platform helped detect wildfire impacts and mobilize emergency funds within a week.
“This kind of tool can make the difference between irreversible loss and timely protection,” Resende said.
Guiding investments
UNESCO officials say the new assessment and Sites Navigator are also signals to guide policy and investment. By mapping risks in near real time, the platform is designed to help governments, donors and private financiers identify where funds can most effectively strengthen site resilience — particularly in places where vulnerable populations live.
“It’s one thing to generate startling data; it’s another to turn that insight into decisions that shape policy and financing,” said Hans Thulstrup, head of networking at UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme. “For investors, these signals point to where to invest and how to secure the greatest impact.”
UNESCO is encouraging investors to use the Navigator to prioritize projects that combine climate action with community empowerment — from fire management to sustainable livelihood initiatives. This, they say, will ensure that Indigenous peoples are central to building resilience in some of the world’s most biodiverse places.
Thulstrup urged governments, donors and private sector partners to move beyond short-term projects, make long-term commitments, and mobilize innovative and sustained investments.
“We need financing that is predictable, inclusive and transformative,” he said, noting that biosphere reserves offer a platform for testing solutions that can then be scaled up globally.
The full report will later be launched, though there’s still no confirmed date, said the UNESCO press officer.
Banner image: Bohol Island, home to rare wildlife like the endemic and near threatened Philippine tarsier (Carlito syrichta), was declared the Philippines’ inaugural UNESCO Geopark in May 2023. Image by Jeroen Hellingman via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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