This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

The Trump administration’s push to expand oil and gas extraction across the US is set to bring drilling near cherished natural and cultural sites, raising alarm among conservationists and prompting questions from the UN’s heritage body.

UNESCO said it had received information on the administration’s plan to scrap a drilling-free buffer zone around the Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico, a world heritage site and one of the most important cultural areas in the US. A UNESCO spokesperson said it had procedures regarding “potential threats” to a world heritage property and was awaiting a response from the federal government as to its impact.

“The world heritage committee has consistently considered extractive activities to be incompatible with world heritage status,” a UNESCO spokesperson said.

As well as warning about the consequences of drilling within the boundaries of world heritage sites, the spokesperson said the committee had also “emphasized that projects proposed outside world heritage properties should not adversely affect their outstanding universal value—which are the features of the site that justify its inscription, and should be subject to appropriate impact assessments before decisions are taken”.

The US has 27 world heritage sites, places protected by international treaty for their cultural, historical or scientific significance, including parks such as Yellowstone and Yosemite and landmarks such as the........

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