World Heritage Committee Urges U.S., Mexican Action to Protect Site from Border Wall Damage

NEW DELHI— The UNESCO World Heritage Committee today called on the United States and Mexico to assess and mitigate the harms of the border wall — particularly its effects on the mammal communities of the Sonoran Desert.

The wall disrupts wildlife migration patterns, including those of the endangered Sonoran pronghorn, between the United States and El Pinacate and Gran Desierto de Altar Biosphere Reserve World Heritage Site in Mexico.

“The World Heritage Committee is absolutely right to sound the alarm on the U.S. border wall’s harm to El Pinacate and the entire region. I hope the U.S. government takes notice and finally acts to restore ecological connectivity,” said Alejandro Olivera, senior scientist and Mexico representative at the Center, who is attending the committee meeting in New Delhi. “Beyond jeopardizing wildlife, U.S.-Mexico border militarization damages human rights, native lands, and international relations. The border wall is a horrific scar ripped through these beautiful landscapes and should come down entirely. Until then, the Sonoran pronghorn and other species need safe border crossings.”

The committee determined the U.S. has failed to establish a strategy to restore ecological connectivity and address the broader environmental consequences of the border wall, including its detrimental effects on El Pinacate’s wildlife.

If ecological connectivity is not restored to safeguard key wildlife populations, El Pinacate could be inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger. Under the World Heritage Convention, a site may be listed as “in danger” if development projects or major public works threaten the natural values the site was designated to protect.

Today’s decision mandates that Mexico and the United States collaborate in a transboundary effort to prepare a report on the current state of conservation in El Pinacate. This report will include the implementation of the Sonoran Pronghorn Recovery Plan, measures taken to prevent further depletion of scarce water resources, and progress made in establishing connectivity measures. The report is due to the World Heritage Center by Feb. 1, 2025, and will be reviewed by the committee at its 47th session next year.

Between 2017 and 2021 the United States completed 455 miles of border wall on the U.S-Mexico border. The wall now runs along 87 miles of Pinacate’s border, leaving just 14 miles in the mountains without a barrier. The 30-foot-high wall was built across the boundary of El Pinacate and Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, blocking critical wildlife migration in and out of this unique protected habitat and endangering the area’s connectivity and integrity.

Additionally, 1,800 not yet active stadium lights were installed along 62 miles of protected lands on the Arizona border, including El Pinacate, that would pose a light pollution threat to animal migration, wildlife and endangered species.

Recognizing its exceptional biodiversity, UNESCO designated the El Pinacate Reserve as a World Heritage site in 2013. The reserve’s desert wildlife evolved over millions of years, freely traversing the Sonoran Desert across what is now the U.S.-Mexico border.

Foreseeing the harmful consequences of the border wall, the Center and other environmental groups, along with Tohono O’odham representatives from Sonora, raised concerns with UNESCO even before construction began. In 2017 the groups petitioned for El Pinacate to be recognized as “in danger.”