8 endangered UNESCO sites to see now; Jen Rose Smith; CNN
Panama – Fortifications on the Caribbean Side of Panama: Portobelo-San Lorenzo
A swampy wilderness of gnarled cypress stands and waving sawgrass just beyond Miami’s suburbs, this 1.5 million-acre UNESCO World Heritage Site can seem timeless.
But rising sea levels have spiked the fresh groundwater beneath the Everglades with salt, and plants and wildlife must quickly adapt to new conditions to survive.
That’s why the Everglades are among the eight World Heritage Sites in the Americas included in UNESCO’s list of “World Heritage in Danger,” an exclusive club of 55 destinations, dominated by war-torn countries and terrorist hotspots.
Stretching from the Florida backwoods to an ancient Peruvian city and ghostly Chilean mines, these eight sites are some of the Americas’ most extraordinary places.