The World Heritage Committee,
-
Having examined Document WHC-15/39.COM/7A.Add,
-
Recalling Decision 38 COM 7A.45, adopted at its 38th session (Doha, 2014),
-
Welcomes the establishment of a Management Unit at Iférouane, in the periphery of the property, but notes with concern the comments of the Reactive Monitoring mission of February 2015 that there is a lack of human and logistical means to ensure the sovereign functioning of this Management Unit, surveillance and ecological monitoring of the property;
-
Expresses its deep concern that the inventory of large wildlife and its habitat conducted in June 2014 makes no mention of Addax, red-necked ostrich and Saharan cheetah and that the Dama gazelle appears to be reduced to a relict population;
-
Notes the conclusion of the Reactive Monitoring mission of February 2015, according to which, excepting soil stabilization actions, the corrective measures proposed by the 2005 mission have barely been implemented and adopts the updated corrective measures, as follows:
- Establish functional management bodies such as surveillance, ecological monitoring, planning and social mobilization and community support services, together with technical and financial means and sufficient staff, including a conservator exclusively responsible for the management and conservation of the property, and better control the exploitation of natural resources in the perimeter of the property,
- Reinvigorate, in cooperation with local leaders, the land commissions in the four municipalities and clarify the respective rights of land use and access to resources of the local populations,
- Develop and implement an emergency surveillance plan to significantly improve the surveillance of the property and combat poaching and the illegal exploitation of natural resources for commercial ends, in particular focusing on the areas that shelter the last surviving populations of flagship species,
- Immediate halt of timber harvesting from the property for commercial purposes, through reinforced cooperation with the forestry service in the control and collection of data on the volume and types of timber from the property, the road networks used to transport the timber to the big cities and the gold mining sites outside the property;
-
Requests the State Party to implement all the other recommendations of the 2015 mission and to implement the action plan prepared by the mission in consultation with the State Party;
-
Urges the State Party to conduct the requisite studies to respond to the lack of data on the numbers of wildlife in the property as well as on the level of demographic pressure, to enable the preparation of a Desired state of conservation for the removal of the property from the List of World Heritage in Danger, for examination by the Committee at its 41st session in 2017;
-
Also requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 February 2016, an updated report, including a 1-page executive summary, on the state of conservation of the property and the implementation of the above, for examination by the World Heritage Committee at its 40th session in 2016;
-
Decides to retain the Air and Ténéré Natural Reserves (Niger) on the List of World Heritage in Danger.