A UN panel has added Florida's Everglades National Park and Madagascar's tropical rainforest to a list of world heritage sites at risk. Unesco's World Heritage Committee said development in the Everglades had caused water flow to fall 60% in the wetland, a major wildlife sanctuary.
The pollution level there was so high it was killing marine life, it added. Illegal logging and poaching following last year's military coup has meanwhile imperilled Madagascar's rainforests.
On Thursday, the committee voted to remove the Galapagos Islands from the at-risk list, saying Ecuador had made significant progress protecting its ecosystem.
Unique species
At a meeting in Brazil, the Unesco panel said the Everglades had been added to the List of World Heritage in Danger at the request of the US government because of "serious and continuing degradation of its aquatic ecosystem".
Agricultural and urban development were the main reasons for the decrease in water flow and increase in pollution levels, Unesco said.