Inca City Machu Picchu Said at Risk from Tourists

The Inca city of Machu Picchu in the Peruvian Andes needs better protection from environmental threats including tourism and fast expansion of a nearby town, a leading conservation group said on Monday.

David Sheppard, of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), also said that Russian organizers of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games should reconsider sites for the bobsleigh to curb threats to wildlife in the western Caucasus.

Other sites rated as in danger on the U.N. World Heritage List include four forest national parks in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Galapagos Islands off Ecuador, medieval monuments in Kosovo and Iraq’s Samarra archaeological city.

Lack of sufficient control over high visitor numbers and expansion of the town of Aguas Calientes in the valley below the 7,972-foot-high Inca citadel were among threats.

Global warming, which may disrupt rainfall and contribute to landslides and forest fires, was also among risks for the city, built before Columbus sailed the Atlantic.