WORLD HERITAGE FACTS

Natural World Heritage

Facts and figures 2015
August 2015

1 out of 5 280m ha.

World Heritage
sites is natural

of land and sea

There are 229 natural World Heritage sites,

representing 22% of all 1031 sites listed as
World Heritage. Out of these, 32 sites are

of the total area covered by over

8% 200,000
recorded protected areas

7%

of the total land area covered by all

recorded terrestrial protected areas

9%

of the total sea area covered by all

recorded marine protected areas

97 countries 18 sites
with natural World in danger
Heritage sites

Currently, 18 natural World Heritage sites are

on the List of World Heritage in Danger

6 in the Arab States

41 in Africa
41 in Latin America and the Caribbean
70 in Asia and the Pacific
71 in Europe and North America

In 40 countries the extent of World

Heritage sites is more than 10% of all
national protected areas
INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE

108 forest sites

46 marine sites
15 transboundary

Photo: Blue and John Crow Mountains, Jamaica IUCN / Melissa Marn

mixed - both natural and cultural - and

197 are natural.

Natural World Heritage protects over 280 million

hectares of land and sea. This covers

WORLD HERITAGE FACTS

Site

Country

Total area
(ha)

Phoenix Islands
Protected Area

Kiribati

40,825,813

Papahnaumokukea

USA

36,479,268

Great Barrier Reef

Australia

34,823,325

Galpagos

Ecuador

14,696,203

Kluane / Wrangell-St Elias /

USA /
Glacier Bay /
Canada
Tatshenshini-Alsek

9,728,368

Lake Baikal

Russia

8,550,838

Ar and Tnr Natural

Reserves

Niger

7,869,613

Tassili nAjjer

Algeria

7,571,268

Central Amazon
Conservation Complex

Brazil

5,131,312

Tanzania

4,751,807

10 Selous Game Reserve

Top 10 countries with

the largest World
Heritage coverage
Country

Total area
(ha)1

% of
protected
areas2

46,513,654

13%

USA

Australia

45,616,424

11%

Kiribati

40,825,813

100%

Russia

23,432,990

11%

Ecuador

14,948,879

72%

Canada

10,752,043

11%

Niger

8,092,128

39%

Algeria

7,571,268

41%

Tanzania

6,972,264

22%

10

Democratic Republic
of the Congo

6,895,266

24%

1. UNEP-WCMC (2015) Global Statistics from the World Database

on Protected Areas (WDPA): February 2015. Cambridge, UK: UNEPWCMC. All areas are calculated from GIS boundaries using the
Mollweide equal area projection for consistency.
2.Data includes all designated protected areas recorded in WDPA
(including land, territorial sea and exclusive economic zone, February
2015) except for UNESCO Man and Biosphere Reserves.
INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE

Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park, Viet Nam IUCN / Josephine Langley

Cape Floral Region Protected Areas, South Africa IUCN / Bastian Bertzky

Top 10 biggest natural

World Heritage sites