NWHI: A Distinct Natural and Cultural Resource Site,
The Ideal Candidate for the UNESCO World Heritage Site Designation
UNESCO World Heritage
The State of Hawaii recognizes that the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands possess an outstanding universal value, therefore Linda Lingle, the Governor of Hawaii is leading the application process to have The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands designated a UNESCO World Heritage mixed natural and cultural site. The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands fulfill the criteria and requirements set forth in the World Heritage Convention for designation as a World Heritage Site and this designation would assist in the protection of this vast, isolated archipelago, vital in the global campaign to preserve biodiversity.
What is the UNESCO World Heritage Site Program?
Heritage is our legacy from the past, what we live with today, and what we pass on to future genrations. Our cultural and natural heritage are both irreplaceable sources of life and inspiration. Places as 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.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) seeks to encourage the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity. This is embodied in an international treaty called the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, adopted by UNESCO IN 1972.from the World Heritage Centre
NWHI Natural and Cultural Criteria of Outstanding Universal Value
Cultural Heritage Criteria
Ku pa ka pali o Nihoa i ka makani
(The cliffs of Nihoa stands as resistance against the wind)
Hawaiian house site
Nihoa Island
A World Heritage Cultural Site is considered to be of outstanding universal value if it bears "a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization which is living or which has disappeared;...or is an outstanding example of a traditional human settlement or land-use which is representative of a culture (or cultures), especially when it has become vulnerable under the impact of irreversible change."
The NWHI have great cultural significance to Native Hawaiians as well as linkages to ancient Polynesian cultures. Numerous archaeological artifacts found on two of the islands establish a close relationship with the Hawaiian culture, with evidence of both prehistoric seasonal and permanent settlements, as well as use of the area for religious purposes. More than 80 cultural sites are known, including habitation terraces, bluff shelters, religious sites, agricultural terraces, and burial caves. The NWHI are home to ancient archaeological sites, which are of outstanding universal value from the historical, aesthetic, ethnological and anthropological points of view.
Natural Heritage Criteria
omilu and coral
Mokumanamana Island
The 1200 miles of basalt islands, pinnacles, coral islands, atolls, reefs, seamounts, banks, and shoals of the NWHI contain superlative natural phenomena and areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance, one of the last wild places on earth.
The NWHI are part of the most isolated archipelago on the planet, an evolutionary textbook in terms of endemic birds, plants, insects, and coral reef species.
Over the millenia, stony corals and calcareous algae constructed massive structures in the shallow seas surrounding and above remnants of mid-ocean volcanoes.
Scientists estimate that the NWHI probably have the highest proportion of endemic and undiscovered reef species of any large reef ecosystem in the world, including new species of sponges, algae, and coral.
The NWHI, some of the healthiest and most ancient coral reefs in the world, have a biomass of marine species 260% greater than in the Main Hawaiian Islands (MHI. Fifty-four percent of the biomass are apex predators, such as groupers, jacks and sharks.
The NWHI contain the most important and significant natural habitats for conservation of biological diversity, including dryland coastal plant community, one of the last remnants of an ecosystem that was once common on the MHI. Fifteen species of plants and animals found in the NWHI are protected under the Endangered Species Act.
The NWHI are home to, and provide vital habitat for the endangered Hawaiian monk seal, the threatened green sea turtle, the endangered leatherback and hawksbill sea turtle, and other flora and fauna. The Hawaiian monk seal, endemic to Hawaii, is the most endangered marine mammal in the United States. The NWHI provide the majority of mating and nesting habitat for the threatened Hawaiian sea turtle.
Nihoa millerbird
The NWHI are an important nesting habitat for over 14 million seabirds belonging to over 20 different species, and serve as the largest tropical seabird rookery in the world. Four endangered, endemic bird species that are not seabirds (Laysan duck, Laysan finch, Nihoa finch, and Nihoa millerbird) also breed on the islands.