UB geographer contributes to UN report on World Heritage Sites

BUFFALO, N.Y. — A new United Nations report on World Heritage Sites and other protected landscapes credits the research of Adam Wilson, PhD, associate professor in the University at Buffalo Department of Geography.

Published by the U.N.’s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the report assesses how UNESCO-designed sites contribute to climate stability, human well-being and biodiversity conservation. 

Titled, “People and Nature in UNESCO-Designated Sites: Global and Local Contributions,” it is the first global assessment of more than 2,260 World Heritage Sites, Biosphere Reserves, and Global Geoparks — a network supporting around 10% of the world’s population in over 175 countries. 

The report shows that UNESCO-designated sites are delivering tangible results for both people and nature. On average, monitored wildlife populations there have remained stable, in stark contrast to the 73% global decline in monitored species since 1970. 

Wilson is credited as a technical contributor to the report, which uses a method from a 2023 study he co-authored to estimate species’ exposure to extreme temperatures.

“The approach my colleagues and I developed was just one small piece of a much larger effort, but it’s rewarding to see it help illuminate climate risks across thousands of UNESCO‑designated sites worldwide,” Wilson says. “This report shows what’s possible when rigorous ecological science is integrated into international policy work.”

Wilson’s study, published in 2023 in Nature Communications and led by University College London, projected how climate change will affect where approximately 36,000 species can survive until 2100. It found that species’ risk to extreme heat will not grow gradually but instead reach a threshold from which it will then rise dramatically. 

Drawing on the research, the report determined that biodiversity in more than 70 UNESCO sites could reach critical tipping points by 2050 — thresholds beyond which ecological disruption and species displacement may become irreversible. The report also finds that avoiding each additional 1 degree Celsius of warming could halve the number of sites at risk of major disruption by 2100.

“As climate extremes intensify, tools that help anticipate risks to biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people will be critical. I’m glad our research could support this global conversation,” Wilson says. 

Wilson is also co-principal investigator on BioSCape, NASA’s first-ever biodiversity-focused campaign. The multinational team used aircraft equipped with remote-sensing technology along with field work in 2023 to collect data about South Africa’s Greater Cape Floristic Region, one of the most biodiverse places on the planet and UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The effort to monitor biodiversity from the air could lay the foundation for monitoring biodiversity from space, as some of the tools used in the project are being employed by NASA to study other planets and stars outside our solar system. 

To date, BioSCape has produced 197 scientific outputs, including 26 journal articles, 8 conference papers, and 138 presentations. The project received a Group Achievement Award as part of the 2024-25 NASA Honor Awards and was the subject of “The Spectrum of Life,” a documentary that premiered at the 2025 Buffalo International Film Festival.