---
title: "World Heritage status for Mexico’s Revillagigedo Islands will help protect their Laysan Albatross and Townsend’s Shearwater populations"
---

# World Heritage status for Mexico’s Revillagigedo Islands will help protect their Laysan Albatross and Townsend’s Shearwater populations

The [Committee](http://whc.unesco.org/en/committee/) of the [World Heritage Convention](http://whc.unesco.org/en/convention/) (formally the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, adopted in 1972) has added the Archipiélgo de Revillagigedo ([Revillagigedo Islands](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revillagigedo_Islands)), a group of four Mexican islands in the eastern Pacific Ocean, as a natural Site to the World Heritage List under Criteria (vii), (ix) and (x) during its [40th Session](http://www.unesco.org/new/en/40th-world-heritage-committee/) in Istanbul, Turkey this month ([click here](http://www.unesco.org/new/en/media-services/single-view/news/eight_new_sites_inscribed_on_unescos_world_heritage_list/#.V44u9Pl95D8)).

 The island group is home to the endemic and [Critically Endangered](http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/speciesfactsheet.php?id=3938) Townsend’s Shearwater *Puffinus auricularis*, now restricted to [Socorro Island](http://www.acap.aq/en/news/latest-news/1773-working-to-protect-mexico-s-critically-endangered-townsend-s-shearwaters-from-artificial-lighting-at-their-only-breeding-locality?highlight=WyJtZXhpY28iLCJtZXhpY28ncyJd), and to small populations of ACAP-listed and [Near Threatened](http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/speciesfactsheet.php?id=3958) Laysan Albatrosses *Phoebastria immutabilis* on [Clarión](http://www.acap.aq/index.php/en/component/content/article/14-news/latest-news/1310-acap-breeding-sites-no-6-clarion-island-revillagigedo-archipelago-mexico-where-snakes-prey-upon-albatrosses) and [San Benedicto](http://www.acap.aq/en/news/latest-news/1648-acap-breeding-site-no-62-san-benedicto-island-mexico-has-a-small-growing-population-of-laysan-albatrosses?highlight=WyJtZXhpY28iLCJtZXhpY28ncyJd) Islands.

 ![](http://www.acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/Albatrosses/L/Laysan_Albatross_hatchling_Clarion_by_Ross_Wanless.jpg) 

 A Laysan Albatross hatches its egg on Clarión Island, photograph by Ross Wanless

 The [Reserva de la Biosfera Archipiélgo de Revillagigedo](http://www.conanp.gob.mx/que_hacemos/pdf/programas_manejo/revillagigedo.pdf) was established in 1994 and was designated as a [Ramsar Wetland Site of International Importance](https://rsis.ramsar.org/ris/1357) (No. 1537) in 2004.

 *John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 20 July 2016*