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The 7th century Paharpur Buddhist Monastery in the Naogaon District of Bangladesh
© Muhammad Mostafigur Rahman / Alamy Stock Photo

Step 3: The State of Conservation

All UNESCO World Heritage sites are required to track and report on issues that threaten the site. These can be issues arising from the environment like water damage or damage from natural disasters, or could be a result of human impacts, like encroaching development or issues arising from poor site management.

Threats to World Heritage Sites

The standard list of threats/factors affecting the Outstanding Universal Value of World Heritage properties consists of a series of 14 primary factors, encompassing each a number of secondary factors. The 14 primary threats are:

1. Buildings and development
2. Transportation infrastructure
3. Utilites or service infrastructure
4. Pollution
5. Biological resource use/modification
6. Physical resource extraction
7. Locale conditions affecting physical fabric
8. Social/cultural uses of heritage
9. Other human activities
10. Climate change and severe weather events
11. Sudden geological or ecological events
12. Invasive/alien species or hyper-abundant species
13. Management and institutional factors
14. Other factor(s) not listed above

A more detailed review of these common threats, is available here >.


Which of these common threats affect your World Heritage site?

Click a link below to understand conservation threats at your World Heritage site: