On Saturday, July 25th, the world recognized the cultural and natural significance of the Okefenokee Swamp, located in modern-day Georgia. The Okefenokee joins an impressive list of destinations from all over the globe, as Georgia’s first and only UNESCO World Heritage site. Keep scrolling to learn more.
What is a World Heritage Site?
The UNESCO World Heritage Convention is an international organization that works to respect and protect natural or man-made site that provide “outstanding universal value.”
With the new additions from this year, including the Okefenokee, the World Heritage list includes 1273 properties in 173 States Parties. , including:
- 991 cultural
- 240 natural
- 42 mixed properties
There are currently 27 World Heritage Sites in the United States, now including the Okefenokee.
The Okefenokee
According to a report by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Kim Bednarek, the executive director of Okefenokee Swamp Park & Okefenokee Adventures, told the World Heritage Committee in a speech accepting the inscription,
The Okefenokee is a place where nature still reigns. Across more than 400,000 acres, water, fire, peat and time continue to shape an intact wetland, reminding us that conservation is about protecting the natural systems that sustain life itself.
The awe-inspiring Okefenokee, which has a deep cultural heritage with local indigenous tribes, is a stunning and vast wilderness, and a powerful reminder of the resilience of nature, is a truly one-of-a-kind natural phenomenon. And we’re so lucky it’s right here in Georgia.
Harriet Beecher Stowe said of the swamp,
This swamp … occasions a never-ceasing conflict of spirit. It is a glorious, bewildering impropriety. The trees and shrubs in it grow as if they were possessed; and there is scarcely a month in the year that it does not flame forth in some new blossom. It is a perpetual flower-garden, where creepers run and tangle; where Nature has raptures and frenzies of growth, and conducts herself like a crazy, drunken, but beautiful bacchante.
The Okefenokee becomes the 27th World Heritage destination in the U.S., and the first in Georgia. It also makes waves as the first natural site in the United States to be added to the list in over three decades.
You can learn more about the Swamp here. And check out the list of other impressive World Heritage sites on their website, here.
Welcome to one of the most exclusive lists in the world, Okefenokee!