ABSTRACT
World Heritage sites are threatened not only by the traditional problems of neglect and development but also by new factors such as terrorism and natural hazards which are increasingly understood to be exacerbated by human-induced environmental change. The evidence of humanity's impact on the planet is overwhelming including the emergence of climate change, the global mass extinction of species and the transformation of land cover by deforestation and urbanization. The Anthropocene has been described as the latest geological epoch in which human activities play a major role in altering the ecological and geological systems. This chapter explores human-induced threats to World Heritage. The increasingly global nature of the threats requires a coordinated and cooperative international response. By inscribing a property on the List of World Heritage in Danger (LWHD), the World Heritage Committee has the immediate capacity to assign financial aid from the World Heritage Fund to the endangered property.
