The fourth global assessment and update on the conservation outlook of all natural World Heritage sites
2025
2025-07-03

The IUCN Secretariat is currently updating the IUCN World Heritage Outlook, an independent assessment of the state of conservation of all World Heritage sites inscribed for their natural values. These sites are internationally recognised to be of the highest global conservation significance; however

Lençóis Maranhenses National Park

The property is located in northeastern Brazil, on the east coast of Maranhão, in a transition zone between three Brazilian biomes: Cerrado, Caatinga and Amazon. More than half of its area consists of a white coastal dune field with temporary and permanent lagoons. Beyond its important role in biodiversity conservation, the park boasts globally significant aesthetic and geological/geomorphological values. © UNESCO

The Flow Country

The serial property, located in the Highland Region of Scotland, is considered the most outstanding example of an actively accumulating blanket bog landscape. This peatland ecosystem, which has been accumulating for the past 9,000 years, provides a diversity of habitats home to a distinct combination of bird species and displays a remarkable diversity of features not found anywhere else on Earth.

Anticosti

Situated on the island of Anticosti, the largest island in Quebec, this property is the most complete and best preserved palaeontological record of the first mass extinction of animal life, 447-437 million years ago. It contains the best preserved fossil record of marine life covering 10 million years of Earth history. The abundance, diversity, and exquisite preservation of the fossils are exceptional and allow for world-class scientific work. © UNESCO

Evaporitic Karst and Caves of Northern Apennines

This serial property is an unusually well-preserved and extensive epigenic gypsum karst terrain. It includes a very high density of caves: over 900 caves in a relatively small area, with over 100 km of caves in total. It is the first and the best studied evaporitic karst in the world, with academic work beginning in the 16th century. It also includes some of the deepest gypsum caves in existence, reaching 265 meters below the surface. © UNESCO

Colchic Rainforests and Wetlands

The property comprises seven component parts, within an 80km long corridor along the warm-temperate and extremely humid eastern coast of the Black Sea. They provide a series of the most typical Colchic ecosystems at altitudes ranging from sea level to more than 2,500 metres above it. The main ecosystems are ancient deciduous Colchic rainforests and wetlands, percolation bogs and other mire types of the distinct Colchic mire region.

Volcanoes and Forests of Mount Pelée and the Pitons of Northern Martinique

The global significance of Mount Pelée and Pitons du Carbet is based on its representation of volcanic processes and forest types. The 1902 eruption is considered the deadliest volcanic event of the 20th century, and a worldwide reference for the history of volcanology. All the forest types and the diversity of endemic plants of the Lesser Antilles are represented in the serial property, within forest continuums ranging from the seashore to the volcanic summits. © UNESCO

Te Henua Enata – The Marquesas Islands

Located in the South Pacific Ocean, this mixed serial property bears an exceptional testimony to the territorial occupation of the Marquesas archipelago by a human civilisation that arrived by sea around the year 1000 CE and developed on these isolated islands between the 10th and the 19th centuries. It is also a hotspot of biodiversity that combines irreplaceable and exceptionally well conserved marine and terrestrial ecosystems.

Vjetrenica Cave, Ravno

Located in the Dinaric mountain range, the property stands out with its remarkable cave biodiversity and endemicity. Known since antiquity, the well-conserved representation of karst topography is one of the world’s most important biodiversity hotspots for cave-dwelling fauna, notably subterranean aquatic fauna. It is home to a number of globally threatened vertebrate species, and the only subterranean tubeworm in the world, as well as a diversity of plant species endemic to the Balkans. © UNESCO