The Department of the Interior announced Friday that the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in southeast Georgia will be nominated to join the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, consists of more than 400,000 acres encompassing 92 percent of the Okefenokee Swamp, a large hydrologically intact swamp that is the source of two rivers – one that flows into the Atlantic and the other into the Gulf of Mexico.
According to a press release from the Department of the Interior, Okefenokee is one of the world’s largest naturally driven freshwater ecosystems in the temperate zone with a diversity of habitat types, including 21 vegetative types. The refuge’s undisturbed peat beds store valuable information on environmental conditions over the past 5,000 years and are a significant source of information related to global changes.
The nomination comes after a collaborative process with partners and consultation with the Federal Interagency Panel for World Heritage. The nomination will now go to the Federal Register for public review and then be submitted to the World Heritage Committee, composed of representatives from 21 nations, for a final decision for inclusion on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
If designated, the refuge would join the list recognizing 1,223 cultural and natural sites of universal importance, such as the Grand Canyon in Arizona, the Taj Mahal in India, the Great Wall in China, and the Galápagos Islands in Ecuador. There are sites in 168 of the 195 countries, with 26 in the United States following the addition of Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks in Ohio in September 2023 and the Historic Moravian Bethlehem District in Pennsylvania in July 2024.
Inclusion of a site in the World Heritage List does not affect United States sovereignty or management over the sites, which remain subject only to United States law. Detailed information on the World Heritage Program and the process for the selection of United States sites can be found on the National Park Service’s website.
The nomination comes as Alabama-based Twin Pines Minerals (TPM) seeks to mine titanium oxide along Trail Ridge on the Okefenokee’s eastern rim.
Bipartisan legislation aimed at stopping the mine has been introduced in the General Assembly but has failed to win passage. Also, at least 19 local governments across Georgia have passed resolutions calling for protecting the Okefenokee.
