Everglades National Park

• Water infrastructure (Quantity and quality of water entering the property)
• Housing (Urban encroachment)
• Surface water pollution and Pollution of marine waters (Agricultural fertilizer pollution, Mercury contamination of fish and wildlife)
• Water infrastructure (lowered water levels due to flood control measures)
• Storms (Damage from hurricanes)
• Invasive/alien species or hyper-abundant species (exotic invasive plant and animal species)

The property was re-inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger, on the request of the State Party, due to concerns that the property’s aquatic ecosystem continues to deteriorate, in particular as a result of:

• Alterations of the hydrological regime (quantity, timing, and distribution of Shark Slough inflows)
• Adjacent urban and agricultural growth (flood protection and water supply requirements that affect the property’s resources by lowering water levels)
• Increased nutrient pollution from upstream agricultural activities
• Significant reduction of both marine and estuarine biodiversity in Florida Bay

Adopted, see page https://whc.unesco.org/en/decisions/4348

Adopted, see page https://whc.unesco.org/en/decisions/1062
Updated, see page https://whc.unesco.org/en/decisions/4348

Adopted, see page https://whc.unesco.org/en/decisions/1062

Updated, see pages https://whc.unesco.org/en/decisions/4348 and https://whc.unesco.org/en/decisions/4958/

N/A

On 12 December 2022, the State Party submitted a state of conservation report which is available at https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/76/documents/. On 5 October 2021, the State Party provided a letter responding to requests of the World Heritage Centre in line with Paragraph 174 of the Operational Guidelines. These documents report the following:

● Information is provided on 14 indicators of the Desired state of conservation for the removal of the property from the List of World Heritage in Danger (DSOCR), using the 2013 table format;

● Progress in implementing the corrective measures: several integrity and ecological indicators are improving or are already within their desired state of conservation, some are stable but a small number are showing signs of further deterioration. The corrective measures are not sufficient to deliver the volumes of clean water needed to achieve the DSOCR, recalling that additional restoration projects were announced in 2015;

● The Modified Water Deliveries (MWD), ‘Canal-111 South Dade’ (C-111), and Everglades Construction Project are operational, and the Combined Operational Plan (COP) is in use. The Central Everglades Planning Project (CEPP) and the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) Reservoir are progressing, but their full benefits are not expected to be realized before 2030. The Tamiami Trial Next Steps (TTNS2) began in April 2021 and is expected to be completed in 2024;

● Around USD 1.5 billion of additional funding has been made available to accelerate critical restoration projects; the estimated time needed for completion ranges from 13 to 22 years, depending on funding;

● Water volumes in the property increased significantly during 2020 and 2021, resulting in longer flooding durations. Wading bird supercolony formation and wading bird nesting success was average to exceptional. Hypersalinity events were not as extreme as observed earlier, the frequency of algal blooms has lessened, seagrass has begun to recover since Hurricane Irma in 2017, and the American crocodile population appears to be increasing;

● Climate change and sea level rise are increasingly impacting the property, including through saltwater intrusion and the intensity of impacts is anticipated to increase in future. Roseate spoonbills have been abandoning historic nesting sites in the property in favour of locations elsewhere and the species has been removed from the list of integrity indicators. A new Resiliency and Sustainability team has been formed to strengthen climate change adaptation strategies;

● Invasive species are increasingly recognized as an important threat and are being addressed through the new Suppressing Looming Invasive Threats Harming Everglades Restoration (SLITHER) legislation and other interagency coordinated efforts. Over USD 5 million are expected to be spent on managing invasive species in 2021-2022, including for prevention, early detection and rapid response;

● The property has high concentrations of mercury, which enters the ecosystem through atmospheric deposition through emissions from coal-fired power plants;

● Two oil and gas permits considered earlier in the vicinity of the property have been resolved through the withdrawal of one application and the permanent protection of 8,000 ha of land and associated drilling rights in the Everglades Protection Area acquired by the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD);

● At least 942 manatee deaths were recorded in Florida between January and September 2021, due largely to starvation following a decline in seagrass cover and red tide algal bloom caused by a naturally occurring toxic algae, Karenia brevis. These events are unlikely to occur in the property because of its location, the salinity level and boat traffic regulation in the park;

● The extension of SR 836 / Dolphin Expressway “will have substantial and unacceptable adverse impacts on the Greater Everglades wetland ecosystem”. Everglades National Park and the US Department of Interior will work with the Miami-Dade Expressway authority to develop alternatives to lessen impacts on the property and to avoid impacts on sensitive wetlands currently being considered in the planning process of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP).

The progress in implementing the corrective measures is strongly welcomed, as is the additional commitment of almost USD 1.5 billion to accelerate critical restoration projects toward achieving the DSOCR. It is noted that the State Party report provides a comprehensive and synthesised overview of the status of the DSOCR indicators.

Although there is a positive or sustainable trend for about one quarter of the sub-indicators since 2013, various sub-indicators have deteriorated, and in 2022, almost two thirds of the sub-indicators still remained below the restoration targets. This emphasizes the need to continue to strengthen current efforts to attain the DSOCR, including the implementation of the State of Florida’s Restoration Strategies Project, and the CEPP with the EAA Reservoir project.

It is concerning that Roseate spoonbills have been removed as an integrity indicator after some have left their nesting sites inside the property due to sea level rise, considering that they were included as an indicator in the DSOCR by the State Party in 2015 (following the identification of indicators during the 2011 joint World Heritage Centre/IUCN Reactive Monitoring mission). It should be recalled that any proposal to amend a DSOCR adopted by the Committee must be submitted to the Committee for approval after review by the Advisory Bodies. Noting the likelihood of climate change further impacting the property in the future, it is recommended that current restoration efforts continue to be strengthened to increase the resilience of the property, and that a climate change adaptation strategy is developed for the property, building on adaptation and mitigation measures identified in the General Management Plan (GMP) and emerging climate change challenges, including sea level rise.

Given that invasive alien species remain a serious concern, the new legislation and additional resources to prevent, manage or eradicate these are welcomed. The reported high concentrations of mercury entering the food chain are concerning and should be addressed considering their potential impacts on top predators through bioaccumulation in the food chain.

Recalling that extractive activities are incompatible with World Heritage status, the prevention of oil and gas activities in the Everglades Protection Area upstream of the property through the acquisition of land and drilling rights is welcomed.

It is noted that the manatee population within the property was not affected by the 2021 mortalities in Florida.

It is of utmost concern that the US Department of Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency found that the proposed SR 836 / Dolphin Expressway extension would “have substantial and unacceptable adverse impacts on the Greater Everglades wetland ecosystem”, noting particularly the sensitive wetlands being considered in the CERP. The State Party should be urged to find alternative locations that would avoid any negative impact on the property, and to assess any proposed development in accordance with the Guidance and Toolkit for Impact Assessments in a World Heritage Context, and submit the assessment to the World Heritage Centre for review by the IUCN prior to making any decision that would be difficult to reverse.

It is recalled that the 2011 mission concluded that it may take several decades for the property to reach the DSOCR and that the existing corrective measures should only be considered as the starting point for the restoration of the property. Considering the extended timeframe to achieve the DSOCR and the increasing impact of climate change and sea level rise, it is recommended, in line with the recommendations of the above mission, that the corrective measures adopted in Decision 30 COM 7A.14 (2006) and Decision 35 COM 7A.14 (2011) be re-assessed and updated to take into account recent progress, address observed challenges, and to consider potential impacts on the Outstanding Universal Value due to climate change.