In addition to being recognised nationally for their conservation values, the Heard Island and McDonald Islands (HIMI) Territory and Marine Reserve are significant at an international level, not only as a World Heritage site, but as an important haven for threatened and migratory birds and seals.

World heritage

The HIMI Territory, including the islands, adjacent offshore rocks and shoals and the territorial sea to 12 nautical miles, was added to the World Heritage List in 1997, with the following statement of significance:

HIMI is a unique wilderness, a place of spectacular beauty which contains outstanding examples of biological and physical processes continuing in an essentially undisturbed environment. Significant biological processes include colonisation and speciation, while the island group’s physical processes provide valuable indicators of the role of crustal plates in the formation of ocean basins and continents and of atmospheric and oceanic warming.

HIMI was considered to meet two of the natural criteria for listing as a World Heritage property, being both:

  • an outstanding example representing major stages of earth’s history, including the record of life, significant on-going geological processes in the development of land forms, or significant geomorphic or physiographic features; and
  • an outstanding example representing significant on-going ecological and biological processes in the evolution and development of terrestrial, fresh water, coastal and marine ecosystems and communities of plants and animals.

For more information about the HIMI World Heritage Area and its outstanding natural universal values go to the World Heritage pages in the Protection and Management section of this website.

Migratory species

The HIMI Marine Reserve provides critical habitat for a number of birds and marine mammal specie, many of which are listed under international agreements for the protection and conservation of migratory species.

These agreements include:

Migratory bird species recorded as breeding in the Reserve include the wandering albatross, black-browed albatross, southern giant petrel, Wilson’s storm petrel and the light-mantled sooty albatross. Several species of cetaceans and non-breeding birds recorded in the Reserve are also listed under these international agreements.

See the Protection page in the Nature section of this website for a list of migratory species found in the Reserve and their conservation status.

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