com/columnists/gabriellahoffman/2025/12/11/dear-unesco-hands-off-okefenokee-swamp-n2667688 By Gabriella Hoffman Excerpt: The Trump administration announced its withdrawal from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in July. But a holdover Biden-Harris decision to designate the Okefenokee Swamp as a World Heritage Site (WHS) could threaten President Trump’s true conservation agenda. In my new CFACT Conservation Country report, I investigated this December 2024 Biden-Harris administration policy. Currently, 92 percent of Okefenokee Swamp- or 407,000 acres – is a federally-managed national wildlife refuge overseen by the U. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). It’s also open to hunting and fishing opportunities. All three Georgia counties bordering the swap – Charlton, Ware, and most recently Clinch County in October – adopted ordinances opposing the UNESCO bid. Some UNESCO bid supporters argue that U. sovereignty won’t be threatened. Other proponents dismissed concerns, claiming the UNESCO WHS designation is akin to a “five-star Yelp review” and nothing else. Yet the concerned citizens I interviewed – those closest to Okefenokee Swamp – are skeptical of the United Nations coming into their backyard. “I went and saw one of the presentations they had out at the fairground, and I wasn’t pleased with what I saw,” Ware County Commissioner Barry Cox explained. “All of my constituents…they contacted me, and they [were] all against it. So I did their will, and we created a resolution against it. ” In a May 2024 Ware County ballot, Question 11 asked voters if they favored the UNESCO bid. Over 2,400 (78 percent) residents overwhelmingly voted against it, while over 700 – or about 22 percent – supported it. “I don’t like any organization that I would consider an entangling alliance,” Drew Jones, Charlton County Commissioner, added. “Many of the UNESCO members are adversarial nations. China, Russia, Afghanistan– all would sit around a table and potentially vote on what should be domestic issues. ” Commissioner Jones conveyed his concerns about public access, stating, “There could be concerns about the property adjacent to the swamp. They could come along and say no hunting, no clear-cutting, no herbiciding outside the refuge boundary. They could say, ‘Oh, we need a buffer zone. ’ You know, ‘there’s hunting too close. There’s logging too close. ” Some UNESCO World Heritage Sites have a mixed track record here and abroad. Last year, Leiden University in the Netherlands warned that UNESCO WHS status “comes at a cost to the local population’s human rights” because international interests frequently clash with impacted individuals and communities. Even the New York Times warned in 2023 that being inscribed in the World Heritage List can be “a curse,” citing a case study involving Fort Jesus in Mombasa, Kenya. The NYT reports the touted tourism benefits of the WHS designation hadn’t materialized in Fort Jesus