Decision 28 COM 15B.11

Royal Chitwan National Park (Nepal)

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Commends the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation of Nepal (DNPWC) for devising a system of controls on the use of the Kasara Bridge and the system of associated roads to minimize the negative impacts of Decisions adopted at the 28th session of the World Heritage WHC-04/28COM/26, p.79 Committee (Suzhou, 2004) the road construction project that had been undertaken without an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA);

2. Invites the State Party to ensure that all other sectors of Government, including the Department of Roads and authorities representing local communities, fully respect the decisions of and co-operate with DNPWC to ensure effective functioning of the system of controls on the road bridge and the protection of the World Heritage values of Royal Chitwan;

3. Recommends that the World Heritage Centre and IUCN continue to communicate with all concerned donors to fully understand how an infrastructure project impacting World Heritage could have been financed without an EIA and how the recurrence of such practice could be prevented in Nepal and elsewhere in the future.