The Okefenokee swamp is poised to join awe-inspiring U.S. landscapes including the Grand Canyon and the Everglades as the nation’s 27th World Heritage Site, a designation a United Nations committee will vote to formalize early Saturday in South Korea. Despite the prestige, it’s an honor that some folks who live near the swamp would just as soon skip. It’s not that they don’t love the Okefenokee. They do. What they can’t bear is the United Nations.Lawn signs urging “Keep the U.N. (UNESCO) out of the Okefenokee” have dotted the roads around Ware and Charlton counties for several years. The same slogan appears on t-shirts.It’s a widespread sentiment around the swamp, said Ware County Commissioner Barry Cox, who spent 40 years running the county’s vehicle maintenance shop before being elected in 2024. Ware is one of three Georgia counties that surround the swamp, along with Charlton and Clinch. All three are rural and deep red. Donald J. Trump received more than 70 percent of the vote in each county in the 2024 general election.Trump’s “America First” agenda resonates here. The United Nations, not so much. Trump announced in July 2025 that the U.S. would withdraw from UNESCO – the UN body that directs the World Heritage Sites program – at the end of this year because it’s focused on goals “at odds with our America First foreign policy.” A World Heritage Site designation “increases a site’s significance to the world,” according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, which owns and manages the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. “Becoming a World Heritage Site does not confer any ownership or management authority to the United Nations, USFWS wrote in a 2024 explainer. “UNESCO only monitors the current conditions and potential threats to the designated properties. The Refuge would continue to be wholly owned and managed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.”