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A vast swamp in southeast Georgia, the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge is an environmental wonderland: a protected wilderness of blackwater channels, peat and dense wetland forests, supporting a rich array of wildlife and plant life.
By July, the Okefenokee could be internationally recognized as a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site. But this effort to protect the refuge depends partly on another layer of federal and international politics, since President Donald Trump moved to withdraw the United States from UNESCO earlier this year.
Ryan, an ICN contributor who recently spent four days paddling the Okefenokee, explains how a U.S. UNESCO withdrawal could affect the bid, how the Okefenokee meets UNESCO’s standard of “outstanding universal value,” and what it’s like to experience the wildlife refuge firsthand.
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