Towards a Revised Canadian Tentative List for World Heritage - Natural Properties

Trends and Directions from IUCN’s Global Thematic Studies

In concert with the evaluation of the Global Strategy, IUCN, as one of the advisory bodies to the World Heritage Committee, has undertaken several thematic overviews that also have implications for Tentative Lists. These include global assessment of the state of five themes:

• fossil sites ⁽⁷⁾
• wetland and marine areas ⁽⁸⁾
• human use ⁽⁹⁾
• forests ⁽¹⁰⁾ and
• biodiversity ⁽¹¹⁾.

Others in preparation are on geological features and mountains ⁽¹²⁾ [now available].

The theme studies are chapters that will eventually result in a Global Strategy and have been issued as “working papers”, to be refined and integrated in future years. These overviews have benefited from a much-improved database on the world’s natural heritage that has been assembled over the past two decades. IUCN / World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC) / United Nations Environment Program databases now are available for most of the world’s biomes in over 20 published volumes. Additional inventories by other organizations such as Birdlife International, The International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS), and the Programme for Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF) also provide relevant data sets.

IUCN’s Global Studies to date have identified five natural sites in Canada that “may merit consideration for World Heritage nomination”. These are:

• Fossil sites (1996): Of five sites worldwide that illustrate excellent early Precambrian microfauna, the Gunflint chert formation in Minnesota and Ontario is one. A locality in Ontario where this formation can be seen is Schreiber Channel Nature Reserve. Additionally, the IUCN study noted 18 sites worldwide which are known for their excellent display of Ediacaran metazoans. These include two localities in the Mackenzie Mountains and in southeast Newfoundland and Labrador (Mistaken Point).
• Forest sites (1997) : Three priority temperate forest sites in the Nearctic Realm were identified as meriting consideration for nomination. These were Volcan Nevado de Colina National Park in Mexico, Kalimiopis/Siskiyou Wilderness in the USA, and South Moresby National Park (i.e., Gwaii Haanas) in Canada.
• Wetland sites (1997) : One site in the Nearctic Realm was identified as meriting consideration for nomination: Arctic Coastal Plain-Arctic National Wildlife Reserve and Old Crow Flats (USA / Canada).
• Biodiversity sites (IUCN / WCMC. 2000) : This review noted that Canada is not included in any defined “Centres of Plant Diversity”, Vavilov Centres, Endemic Bird Areas, or Conservation International Biodiversity “hot spots”. It also summarizes coverage of World Heritage sites by the nine Udvardy Biogeographical Provinces found in Canada. This classification of biogeographical zones was developed by Dr. Miklos Udvardy in 1975 and has been used internationally as a unified system for biogeographical and conservation purposes ⁽¹³⁾ .

Although it does not necessarily follow that each biogeographical province will contain a World Heritage Site (“representativeness” is an objective of the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Programme ⁽¹⁴⁾ whereas World Heritage focuses on “outstanding universal value”), it is clear that six of the ten Udvardy biogeographical provinces in Canada do not have a natural site within them. Further, Udvardy’s system is terrestrial and similar data are not available for marine regions.