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“Heritage is our legacy from the past, what we live with today, and what we pass on to future generations. Our cultural and natural heritage are both irreplaceable sources of life and inspiration. Places as unique and diverse as the wilds of East Africa’s Serengeti, the Pyramids of Egypt, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and the Baroque cathedrals of Latin America make up our world’s heritage”.

To the above quote may be added many of the places where ACAP-listed albatrosses and petrels breed. A number of such sites has been registered with the World Heritage Convention (http://whc.unesco.org), bringing an international status, and stature, to them. A list of such World Heritage sites and their breeding ACAP species follows, in order of ACAP Party.

AUSTRALIA

Heard & McDonald Islands

Inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1997. Heard Island covers approximately 36 800 ha, the McDonald Islands 1 800 ha, and the territory nominated as a World Heritage Site includes the adjacent offshore rocks and shoals. The area includes all territorial waters to a distance of 12 nautical miles. Breeding ACAP species are Black-browed Albatross Thalassarche melanophris, Light-mantled Sooty Albatross Phoebetria palpebrata and Southern Giant Petrel Macronectes giganteus. The Wandering Albatross Diomedea exulans has bred in the past.

http://www.unep-wcmc.org/sites/wh/himi.html and http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/577. See also: http://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/places/world/heard-mcdonald/index.html and http://www.heardisland.aq/.

Macquarie Island

Inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1997. Comprises Macquarie Island, Bishop and Clerk Islets, Judge and Clerk Islets and surrounding waters to a distance of 12 nautical miles. There are seven ACAP-listed breeding species: Wandering Albatross, Black-browed Albatross, Grey-headed Albatross T. chrysostoma, Light-mantled Sooty Albatross, Southern Giant Petrel, Northern Giant Petrel M. halli and Grey Petrel Procellaria cinerea.

http://www.unep-wcmc.org/sites/wh/macquari.html and http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/629. See also: http://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/places/world/macquarie/index.html.

Tasmanian Wilderness

Inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1982. The site includes the offshore islets of Mewstone and Pedra Branca that support two of the three breeding populations of the Shy Albatross T. cauta.

http://www.unep-wcmc.org/sites/wh/taswild.html and http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/181.

See also: http://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/places/world/tasmanian-wilderness/index.html and http://www.parks.tas.gov.au/index.aspx?base=391.

ECUADOR

Galápagos National Park and Marine Reserve

Inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1978 and extended in 2001. Placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger in 2007. Includes the island of Española, breeding locality of the Waved Albatross Phoebastria irrorata. A 40-nm marine reserve surrounds the archipelago.

http://www.unep-wcmc.org/sites/wh/galapago.html and http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1.

NEW ZEALAND

New Zealand Subantarctic Islands

Inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1998. The World Heritage Site includes five island groups (Antipodes, Auckland, Bounty, Campbell and Snares), including their 12-nm territorial seas. A total of 12 ACAP-listed species breeds within the World Heritage Site: *Antipodes Albatross D. antipodensis (and its subspecies *Gibson’s Albatross D. a. gibsoni), *Southern Royal Albatross D. epomophora, Black-browed Albatross, *Campbell Albatross T. impavida, Grey-headed Albatross, Salvin’s Albatross T. salvini, *White-capped Albatross T. steadi, Buller’s Albatross T. bulleri, Light-mantled Sooty Albatross, Northern Giant Petrel, White-chinned Petrel Procellaria aequinoctialis and Grey Petrel.

*Endemic/near-endemic to the World Heritage Site.

http://www.unep-wcmc.org/sites/wh/subantar.htm and http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/877.

Department of Conservation 1997. Subantarctic islands heritage. Nomination of the New Zealand Subantarctic islands by the Government of New Zealand for inclusion in the World Heritage List. Wellington: Department of Conservation. 76 pp. ISBN 0-478-01910-0.

UNITED KINGDOM

Gough and Inaccessible Islands

Inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1995 (Gough Island) and extended to include Inaccessible Island in 2004. The extended site includes both islands and their territorial waters out to 12 nautical miles. ACAP species breeding are Tristan Albatross D. dabbenena (endemic to the World Heritage Site), Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross T. chlororhynchos, Sooty Albatross Phoebetria fusca, Southern Giant Petrel, Grey Petrel and Spectacled Petrel Procellaria conspicillata (endemic to the World Heritage Site).

http://www.unep-wcmc.org/sites/wh/gough.html and http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/740.

Nineteen (nearly three-quarters) of the 26 ACAP-listed species currently breed within at least one World Heritage Site. If South Africa is successful in nominating a World Heritage Site at the Prince Edward Islands from its tentative list, this coverage will increase to 21 species, with the inclusion of the Wandering Albatross D. exulans and the Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross T. carteri. (see http://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/1923/ and www.deat.gov.za).

Norway has placed Bouvet Island (where Southern Giant Petrels have been recorded breeding in the past) on its tentative list (http://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/5162/).

For information on books on the above islands and island groups click here; for information on management plans click here.