Honduras - Rio Platano Biosphere Reserve (Extension)

As noted above, the existing property was recognized as having World Heritage merits due to its significant block of contiguous humid broadleaf forest, the coverage ofan entire and major river from its source to its mouth on the Atlantic Coast and the exceptional diversity of the landscape mosaic in the coastal plains. The nominated area builds upon that rationale, while substantially adding surface area and ecosystem diversity. Compared to the existing property, the most obvious difference of the nominated area is its much larger scale of some 630,000 hectares, an enormous area by any standard and in particular by the standards of a relatively small country. Unlike the existing property, which included some 120,000 hectares of contiguous dense broadleaf forest, the nominated area includes the vast majority of that entire forest block, some 210,000 hectares fully coinciding with the core zone of the biosphere reserve.