Decision 38 COM 7B.85

Pitons Management Area (Saint Lucia) (N 1161)

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC-14/38.COM/7B.Add,
2. Recalling Decision 37 COM 7B.32, adopted at its 37th session (Phnom Penh, 2013),
3. Notes with appreciation the efforts undertaken by the State Party to address the problem of invasive species and to improve stakeholder engagement;
4. Welcomes the completion of the Limits of Acceptable Change (LAC) Study, and requests the State Party to ensure its legal recognition and integration within the development planning and control legislation and processes for the property, to fully implement its recommendations, and to not allow any developments to proceed if they are considered to exceed the LAC;
5. Notes that a number of planned and ongoing developments, such as Freedom Bay and Sugar Beach, are considered to exceed the LAC, and also requests the State Party to ensure these developments are either abandoned, or significantly modified to ensure they have no impacts on Outstanding Universal Value (OUV);
6. Further requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre any revised master plans, prior to making any decisions that would be difficult to reverse, in accordance with Paragraph 172 of the Operational Guidelines;
7. Considers that, should any development exceeding the LAC be allowed to proceed, the integrity of the property would clearly be compromised, leading to consideration of the inclusion of the property on the List of World Heritage in Danger;
8. Recommends that the development of geothermal energy within the property should be prohibited, and urges the State Party to ensure that any planned development of geothermal energy outside the property is subject to a detailed environmental impact assessment to asses the potential impacts on its OUV, in conformity with IUCN’s World Heritage Advice Note on Environmental Assessment;
9. Requests furthermore the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 December 2015, a report, including a 1-page executive summary, on the state of conservation of the property, and including the legal adoption and full implementation of the recommendations of the Limits of Acceptable Change study and additional measures to prevent development impacting the OUV of the property, for examination by the World Heritage Committee at its 40th session in 2016.