Periodic Report - Second Cycle Section II-Laurisilva of Madeira 1. World Heritage Property Data 1.8 - Other designations / Conventions under which the property is protected (if applicable) 1.1 - Name of World Heritage Property Comment Laurisilva of Madeira Natura 2000 network, under Birds Directive and Habitat directive. Madeira Natural Park 98% overlay. 1.2 - World Heritage Property Details State(s) Party(ies) 2. Statement of Outstanding Universal Value Portugal 2.1 - Statement of Outstanding Universal Value / Type of Property Statement of Significance natural Identification Number Statement of Outstanding Universal Value 934 Brief synthesis Year of inscription on the World Heritage List The Laurisilva of Madeira, within the Parque Natural da 1999 Madeira (Madeira Natural Park) conserves the largest surviving area of primary laurel forest or "laurisilva", a vegetation type that is now confined to the Azores, Madeira 1.3 - Geographic Information Table and the Canary Islands. These forests display a wealth of Name Coordinates Property Buffer Total Inscription ecological niches, intact ecosystem processes, and play a (latitude/longitude) (ha) zone (ha) year (ha) predominant role in maintaining the hydrological balance on the Island of Madeira. The property has great importance for Laurisilva 32.767 / -17 15000 0 15000 1999 of Madeira biodiversity conservation with at least 76 vascular plant Total (ha) 15000 0 15000 species endemic to Madeira occurring in the property, together with a high number of endemic invertebrates and two endemic birds including the emblematic Madeiran Laurel 1.4 - Map(s) Pigeon. Title Date Link to Criterion (ix): The Laurisilva of Madeira is an outstanding source relict of a previously widespread laurel forest type, which Laurisilva of Madeira - Map of the inscribed 04/12/1999 covered much of Southern Europe 15-40 million years ago. property The forest of the property completely covers a series of very steep, V-shaped valleys leading from the plateau and east- 1.5 - Governmental Institution Responsible for the west ridge in the centre of the island to the north coast. The Property forests of the property and their associated biological and ecological process are largely undisturbed, and play a Luís Pinho Lopes predominant role in the island´s hydrological balance. The Direção-Geral do Património Cultural forest is mainly comprised of evergreen trees and bushes, Architecte with flat, dark green leaves. The property provides a wealth of Comment ecological niches, complex food webs and examples of co- Add: Regional Government of Madeira / Regional Secretariat evolution of species. A range of climax vegetation of the Environment Regional Directorate of Forestry and communities such as the "Til Laurisilva", the "Barbusano Nature Conservation Paulo Conceição Rocha da Silva Laurisilva" and the "Vinhático Laurisilva", have been identified Director Estrada Comandante Camacho de Freitas, 308/310 within the property. Ancient trees in the valley bottoms, 9020-149 Funchal Portugal Telephone: +351 291740060 Fax: waterfalls and cliffs add to the experience of the values of the +351 291740065 Email: [email protected] Rectify: property. Directorate General for Cultural Heritage Luiz de Pinho Lopes Criterion (x): The Laurisilva of Madeira is a place of Architect Direção Geral do Património Cultural Palácio importance for its biological diversity. A large proportion of its Nacional da Ajudá (...) plants and animals are unique to the laurel forest, and it is larger than and with significant differences to other laurel 1.6 - Property Manager / Coordinator, Local Institution / forest areas. Endemic trees belonging to the Lauraceae family Agency such as the Barbusano Apollonias barbujana ssp. Barbujana, the Laurel Laurus novocanariensis, the Til Ocotea foetens and Paulo Oliveira the Vinhático Persea indica are dominant. Other endemic Regional Government of Madeira / Regional Secretariat plants include plants such as Pride of Madeira Echium of the Environment candicans, Honey Spurge Euphorbia mellifera, Madeira Director Foxglove Isoplexis spectrum and Musschia wollastonii. Ferns Natural Park of Madeira abound in the shadowy valleys and bryophytes cover large areas of the soil, banks, rocks and tree trunks. Around 13 1.7 - Web Address of the Property (if existing) liverwort species and 20 moss species are noted as 1. Madeira Natural Park threatened at a European scale, while abundant lichens are indicative of high environmental quality and the absence of Comment pollution. Vertebrate species include a limited number of Add: a) Direção-Geral do Património Cultural - species with high endemism, including two rare species of www.patrimóniocultural.pt ; b) Comissão Nacional da bats, the Madeira Pipistrelle Pipistrellus maderensis and the UNESCO - www.unescoportugal.mne.pt ; c) Serviço de Leisler''s Bat Nyctalus leisleri verrucosus and several birds, Informação do Património Arquitetónico - such as the Madeira Laurel Pigeon Columba trocaz, the www.monumentos.pt Madeiran Firecrest Regulus madeirensis and the Madeiran Chaffinch Fingilla coelebs madeirensis. In the Laurisilva there Page 1 Monday, October 13, 2014 (9:15:59 PM CEST) Periodic Report - Section II-Laurisilva of Madeira World Heritage Centre Periodic Report - Second Cycle Section II-Laurisilva of Madeira are more than 500 endemic species of invertebrates, including lower edge of the property. A small number of permits is insects, arachnids and mollusks. issued to local people for limited collection common tree Integrity heather in the higher zones. Although declining, this use The property includes the areas of primary laurisilva remaining needs to be monitored and kept within levels that do no harm on Madeira. Its boundaries were defined after an exhaustive to the forest. Management of the areas adjacent to the field study to identify the most significant areas of remaining property needs to fully consider its Outstanding Universal vegetation. Most of the property is believed to have never Value, particularly in relation to the potential for introduction of been felled and includes some massive old trees, possibly alien invasive species. Facilities for visitors to the laurel forest over 800 years old, which have been growing since before the are few and visitor management will need to be prioritized as island was settled. Goats and sheep, which caused some tourism trends change. With sheer cliffs beside narrow damage in the past, have now been eradicated from the area. levadas, great care is needed to both to protect the forest and The property also contains an important testimony of human to provide for safe visitor access, especially in relation to use. The settlers of Madeira constructed water channels, possible increases in visitor pressure. Strong policies are known as levadas, which run through the forest following the needed to ensure there is no temptation to build inappropriate contours of the landscape, and clinging to the cliffs and steep- facilities for visitors. Effective visitor interpretation and sided valleys. Typically 80-150 cm wide and constructed of education programmes would also be highly beneficial to the stone or more recently concrete, they carry water from the communication of the Outstanding Universal Value of the forest to hydropower stations and to the towns of the south, property. where they provide essential drinking water and irrigation supplies. Along the levadas there are paths typically 1-2m 2.2 - The criteria (2005 revised version) under which the wide, which allow access to the otherwise almost property was inscribed impenetrable forest. The impact of these features on the (ix)(x) property is limited, and also has some benefit for conservation, since they allow access to the forest on relatively flat paths and cover only an infinitesimal area of 2.3 - Attributes expressing the Outstanding Universal land. None has been built for 70 years, but the present ones Value per criterion are carefully maintained. Apart from the levadas, and the occasional tiny hut used by those that maintain them, human 2.4 - If needed, please provide details of why the development within the property is very limited and there is no Statement of Outstanding Universal Value should be habitation, no buildings, except the occasional tiny hut for revised those who maintain the levadas, and no cultivated land. There are limited impacts from two roads, with plans to 2.5 - Comments, conclusions and / or recommendations replace one by a tunnel. related to Statement of Outstanding Universal Value The integrity of the property is further enhanced by buffer zones that are not part of the inscribed property but protect it from threats originating from outside its boundaries. Possibly 3. Factors Affecting the Property threats arising from these areas include invasive species and species introductions from both agriculture and forestry. Protection and management requirements 3.14. Other factor(s) The property comprises approximately 15,000ha of land within the 27,000ha of Parque Natural da Madeira (Madeira Natural 3.14.1 - Other factor(s) Park). It has strong and effective legal protection under regional, national and European Law. These multiple layers of protection include status as a special area of conservation under the Habitats Directive of the European Union, which obliges the State Party to protect the area so that both "Madeiran laurel forest" and 39 species of rare and threatened plants and animals remain at, or are restored to, "favourable conservation