Papahānaumokuākea

Overview

About

Papahānaumokuākea was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2010 as a mixed site.

Why it was inscribed

The World Heritage Committee found that it meets criteria (iii), (vi), (viii), (ix), (x) of the ten selection criteria:

(iii) a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization which is living or which has disappeared.

(vi) directly or tangibly associated with events or living traditions, with ideas or beliefs, or with artistic and literary works of outstanding universal significance.

(viii) an outstanding example of major stages of Earth’s history, including the record of life, significant on-going geological processes in the development of landforms, or significant geomorphic or physiographic features.

(ix) an outstanding example of significant on-going ecological and biological processes in the evolution and development of ecosystems and communities of plants and animals.

(x) the most important and significant natural habitats for in-situ conservation of biological diversity, including those containing threatened species of outstanding universal value.

Description (UNESCO World Heritage Centre)

Papahānaumokuākea is a vast and isolated linear cluster of small, low lying islands and atolls, with their surrounding ocean, roughly 250 km to the northwest of the main Hawaiian Archipelago and extending over some 1931 km. The area has deep cosmological and traditional significance for living Native Hawaiian culture, as an ancestral environment, as an embodiment of the Hawaiian concept of kinship between people and the natural world, and as the place where it is believed that life originates and to where the spirits return after death. On two of the islands, Nihoa and Makumanamana, there are

Travel tips

Access: the monument stretches about 1,931 km north-west of Honolulu through mostly uninhabited atolls and islets. It is not open to general visitors and has no scheduled passenger service.

Entry: entry is by permit only, for research, conservation, education and Native Hawaiian cultural activities. Individuals cannot travel there on their own.

Midway: Midway Atoll is run as a national wildlife refuge. Public visitor programmes that ran in earlier years have ended; only staff, contractors and volunteers on official business go there, by chartered aircraft landing at Henderson Field.

Learning about it: the Mokupapapa Discovery Center in Hilo, Hawaii, has exhibits and education programmes on the monument and is the main place for most visitors to learn about it.

Seeing the same species: the coasts and dive sites of the main Hawaiian Islands show species found in the monument, such as Hawaiian monk seals, green sea turtles and reef life.

Time: half a day for the Discovery Center in Hilo.

Season: Hawaii is warm all year. Albatrosses gather to breed on Midway in winter and spring.

Note: this is a national marine monument with strict rules on fishing, collecting and landing, and no alien species may be brought in.