Title
Chapter Title: Current wilderness coverage on the World Heritage List: Broad gaps and opportunities
Book Title: World Heritage, Wilderness, and Large Landscapes and Seascapes.
Author(s)
Allan, James R. ;Shi, Yichuan ;Bertzky, Bastian ;Jaeger, Tilman ;Venter, Oscar ;Mackey, Brendan ;van Merm, Remco ;Osipova, Elena ;Watson, James E.M. ;Kormos, Cyril F.
Published
2017
Abstract
For the purpose of this thematic study (see Chapter 1) we
define the term “wilderness” generically to describe landscapes
and seascapes that are biologically and ecologically largely
intact, with a low human population density and that are
mostly free of industrial infrastructure (Kormos et al. 2015,
Kormos 2008, Watson et al. 2009, Mittermeier et al. 2003,
Watson et al. 2016). We emphasize once more that the term
“wilderness” is not exclusive of people, but rather of human
uses that result in significant biophysical disturbance, and that
wilderness quality is often defined in terms of remoteness from
urban settlements and modern infrastructure as well as the
degree of ecological impacts from industrial activity (Kormos
et al. 2015, Mittermeier et al. 2003). In Chapter 3 we review
the application of the term “wilderness” at a protected area
scale under the World Heritage Convention, by identifying
World Heritage sites whose Outstanding Universal Value is
explicitly linked to a range of wilderness attributes in official
documentation accompanying the site’s inscription on the
World Heritage List. In this chapter we review the contribution
existing natural and mixed (i.e. sites inscribed under both
natural and cultural criteria) World Heritage sites make to the
protection of global-scale wilderness areas and also identify
broad gaps in wilderness coverage on the World Heritage List.
We first assess global scale terrestrial wilderness, then marine
wilderness.
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