Property: Pantanal Conservation Area

Id. N°: 999

State Party: Brazil

Criteria: N (ii) (iii) (iv)

The Committee inscribed Pantanal Conservation Complex on the World Heritage List under natural criteria (ii), (iii) and (iv).

Criteria (ii), (iii) and (iv): The site is representative of the Greater Pantanal region. It demonstrates the on-going ecological and biological processes that occur in the Pantanal. The association of the Amolar Mountains with the dominant freshwater wetland ecosystems confers to the site a uniquely important ecological gradient as well as a dramatic landscape. The site plays a key role in the dispersion of nutrients to the entire basin and is the most important reserve for maintaining fish stocks in the Pantanal. The area preserves habitats representative of the Pantanal that contain a number of globally threatened species. The area is a refuge for fauna as it is the only area of the Pantanal that remains partially inundated during the dry season.

The Committee discussed a number of potential threats to the site, including extraction of minerals and the use of mercury to extract gold from the soils. IUCN pointed out that although there are threats in the Panatanal ecosystem, the nominated site is located upstream from them and studies confirmed that there are no pollution-related impacts. The Committee decided to change the name from Pantanal Conservation Complex to Pantanal Conservation Area.

The Observer of Brazil concurred with this and assured the Committee that his Government is committed to the protection of this unique area, part of a larger recently designated UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.