According to IUCN’s 2025 conservation assessment, climate change has overtaken hunting as the region’s most pressing danger—driving coral bleaching, glacier melt, and rapid ecosystem disruption—while climate change and severe weather events are now rated as high or very high threats across Asia’s Natural World Heritage sites.
By Salam Rajesh
Climate change is the most prevalent current threat this year for the Natural World Heritage sites in Asia, blares the headline of a recent International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) report.
The report ‘IUCN World Heritage Outlook 4: A conservation assessment of all natural World Heritage sites (October 2025)’says in the year 2020, hunting was the most prevalent threat in Asia, but this since has been taken over by the serious implication of climate change, a crisis in global scale.
Referring to Rafiei et al. (2025), the report outlines that overlaying anthropogenic pressures, climate change has accelerated biodiversity loss in Asia through alteration of ecosystems, coral bleaching, and melting of Himalayan glaciers threatening freshwater ecosystems. This assessment is well reflected in the Conservation Outlook Assessments, it said.
Climate change and severe weather events as current threats in Asia are assessed as high or very high in year 2025, according to the IUCN report.
This year, tourism activities remain the second greatest threat, as was in 2020, and, moreover, invasive alien species are now the third highest threat. The report outlined that in 2020, invasive alien species was not ranked among the top three greatest threats in Asia.
The IUCN report further says that it is quite notable that roads and railroads are now among the top five greatest threats to natural World Heritage sites in Asia, while in 2020 this was not the case.
It may be recalled that countries like China and India had since been pushing for infrastructural development in large scale, expanding their outreach in the inaccessible Trans-Himalayan region. China is reported to be making the world’s longest highway connecting Tibet with Peking.
Regarding education and awareness raising, the World Heritage sites in Asia offer good practice examples of how to engage younger generations, visitors and local communities in conservation through educational programs, the report noted.
Citing a good example, the IUCN report profiled Mount Wuyi Park in China where there are several cultural and natural museums, and in 2023 and 2024, UNESCO hosted two ‘Youth into Forest’ programs there.
The park had established science exhibition halls and organized events like the Ecological Culture Festival and Nature Observation Festival to promote ecological awareness. Recently, it built multiple ecological education bases, including a national youth green camp, providing venues for students and the public.
The park integrates school education with nature education through activities such as ecological expeditions and science classes in schools, enhancing its brand image. These efforts have made ecological protection a societal trend, fostering widespread participation in conservation, the report stated.
Citing another example, in Sinharaja Forest Reserve in Sri Lanka, the Sinharaja Forest Landscape Management Plan specifically identifies the provision of a world-class education and awareness experience to visitors of the World Heritage site as a strategic sub-objective, indicating the commitment of the management agency to this issue.
IUCN Director General Dr. Grethel Aguilar observed that the Natural World Heritage sites play a crucial role in helping to address global challenges and in safeguarding nature for all. Covering less than one percent of the planet yet harboring more than 20 percent of mapped global species richness, they serve as vital refuges for elephants, tigers, great apes and many other iconic species, she said.
Collectively, such sites provide a protective home for over 20,000 globally threatened species. They sustain people’s well-being by protecting water sources, buffering against climate impacts, supporting livelihoods and preserving cultural values, Dr. Grethel added.
IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) Chair Madhu Rao is of the opinion that the world is at an inflection point where decisions being made today by governments, by corporate leaders, and by consumers will determine whether the world can reverse global biodiversity loss in this critical decade, or whether the people will experience a catastrophic collapse of Earth’s biosphere in near future.
At the same time, the existing threats – such as climate change, which emerged in the previous Outlook as the pre-eminent threat to Natural World Heritage sites globally – continue to be existential for some properties and the species and natural phenomena within them. Persistent threats from climate change, overexploitation, unregulated tourism, and infrastructure remain, the report added.
In current global dialogues, the triple planetary crises – global warming, climate change and extreme weather events – are seen as hugely impacting both the human and the natural environments, causing tremendous losses and damages.
The IUCN World Heritage Outlook (https://worldheritageoutlook.iucn.org) assesses the conservation prospects of all World Heritage sites inscribed for their natural values. It focuses on the values for which sites are inscribed, threats to these values, and the effectiveness of protection and management.
These sites are globally recognized as some of the most significant natural areas on Earth and their conservation meets the high standards of the World Heritage Convention. IUCN notes that the ability to conserve these sites is a litmus test for the broader success of conservation worldwide.
The IUCN initiates innovative ways to enhance the role of the World Heritage Convention in protecting the planet’s biodiversity and natural heritage, and in positioning the world’s most iconic places as exemplars of nature-based solutions to global challenges.
IUCN is the official advisory body on nature to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee. The organization brings together knowledge across IUCN’s Commissions, especially the World Commission on Protected Areas (IUCN-WCPA) and the Species Survival Commission (IUCN-SSC), IUCN Members and a range of partners, to evaluate new sites nominated to the World Heritage List, monitors the conservation of listed sites, and promotes the World Heritage Convention as a leading global instrument for conservation.