United Nations honors Okefenokee Swamp with special designation of protection

UNESCO’s addition of the Okefenokee Swamp to the World Heritage List is thrilling to North Florida environmentalists.

The Okefenokee Swamp National Wildlife Refuge is a huge 438,000-acre tract of protected wetlands that’s mostly in Georgia. But it also has portions in North Florida in Baker County.

North Florida Land Trust (NFLT) officials are thrilled with the designation that was formally approved by UNESCO during meetings in Seoul, South Korea, on Saturday.

“The economic impact that will be coming in the next few decades will be enormous,” said Allison DeFoor, CEO and President of the NFLT. “It’s going to be a deal, not just for the economy of South Georgia but for North Florida.”

The UNESCO designation is intended to draw additional protections for sites and calls for those areas to be honored as treasures. It requires local governments to legally oversee and care for the property. There are 1,273 UNESCO World Heritage List properties across the globe.

DeFoor said the Okefenokee Swamp provides the headwaters for the Suwannee River, which is a valued waterway that’s still relatively environmentally sound as it courses through much of North Florida. The swamp is also the beginning of what many environmental groups and Florida government officials refer to as the Ocala to Osceola (O2O) Wildlife Corridor, which covers a massive 100-mile, 1.6 million-acre stretch of protected public and private sensitive lands.

“I’m surprised it took this long” for the UNESCO designation, DeFoor said. “It’s that important. It’s a watershed for this whole region. It has the same kind of ecosystematic integrity that the Everglades has.”

DeFoor acknowledged that while North Florida environmentalists value the precious Okefenokee Swamp, few outside of the region are fully aware of its significance. He said that’s going to change and in a few decades, it may come to be as recognized as the Everglades in South Florida, which was largely overlooked and nearly lost to pollution just a few decades ago.

“I am making a flat out prediction that in the decades to come people will be astonished at the economic impact of this decision,” DeFoor said.

He noted that the tourism being generated won’t be limited to the interior of Florida. He said he has no doubt that Jacksonville will see tourism economic impacts increase substantially once the Okefenokee catches on as a draw for visitors from across the world.

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Material from The Associated Press was used in this report. Republished with permission.