Florida’s Everglades are in peril, according to UNSECO’s World Heritage Committee, which has added Everglades National Park to its List of World Heritage in Danger in response to the continued destruction of the region’s saw-grass marsh ecosystem. Loss of habitat and declines in water flow and aquatic species have severely compromised the ability of the ecosystem to perform basic functions of ecological and economic importance, including protecting against storm surge and sustaining marine and estuarine habitats.
This is the second time that the Everglades has been listed. The expansion of development and agriculture and damage from Hurricane Andrew in 1992 led to the region’s first listing in 1993. It was removed in 2007 following efforts to improve water flow and quality.
Its reinscription this year seems to fit with the Everglades’ turbulent history. Efforts to establish a park to protect the ecosystem originated in 1928 with landscape architect Ernest Coe. Congress granted National Park status in 1934, but problems with land acquisition and funding delayed its opening until 1947. But even under federal protection, the Everglades suffered the consequences of development.
In the 1960s the draining of portions of Big Cypress Swamp on the northern border of the park led many to realize that the Everglades’ watershed was highly vulnerable to activities upstream. Damage from hurricanes and other tropical storms at the park’s southern boundary emphasized the necessity of keeping the ecosystem’s mangrove swamps intact. And the loss of aquatic species, including plants and animals, stressed the importance of protecting sea-grass communities around and within the area’s sloughs, marl prairies, and coastal lowlands.
The park’s addition to the in-danger list comes at a pivotal time. In addition to already existing habitat threats, park officials are now bracing for the fallout of the Deepwater Horizons oil spill. World Heritage Centre and IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) experts will be visiting the park later this year to assess its condition and provide guidance on how best to restore habitat and ecosystem function. The goal is to have the park delisted as soon as possible.
The Everglades was not alone in its addition to the World Heritage sites under threat. It was accompanied by the Atsinanana rainforest of Madagascar, which has been threatened by deforestation and poaching of endangered lemurs.
Learn more about the World Heritage Committee’s decision in UNESCO’s press release.