Climate change has emerged as the single greatest threat to the world’s natural World Heritage sites, affecting nearly half of them, according to the IUCN World Heritage Outlook 4 released at the IUCN Congress in Abu Dhabi. The report warns that 43% of natural sites now face severe climate-related risks, surpassing all other pressures, while invasive alien species impact 30% of sites. The number of sites affected by wildlife and plant diseases has also increased sharply, rising from 2% in 2020 to 9% in 2025.

The Outlook, based on a decade of global assessments since 2014, provides the most comprehensive analysis of the state of natural World Heritage sites to date. It reveals a continuing decline in their conservation status, with the proportion of sites showing a positive outlook falling

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