Decision 39 COM 7B.1

Dja Wildlife Reserve (Cameroon) (N 407)

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC-15/39.COM/7B,
2. Recalling Decisions 36 COM 7B.1 and 38 COM 7B.86, adopted at its 36th (Saint Petersburg, 2012) and 38th (Doha, 2014) sessions respectively,
3. Notes with appreciation the State Party’s continued efforts to increase staff and the operational budget and investment into the property’s Conservation Service, and encourages the State Party to continue these efforts;
4. Commends the State Party for its efforts to increase surveillance of the property but notes with concern that elephant poaching remains a significant threat to the property, and highly welcomes the commitment by the State Party and its partners to address poaching at the local, national, and transboundary levels;
5. Also welcomes the progress made by the State Party with the formulation of terms of reference for the Strategic Environmental and Social Assessment (SESA) of all of the major projects around the property, and encourages the State Party to mobilize funds necessary to carry-out this study;
6. Notes the efforts made to address deforestation, and requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre statistics about deforestation in the property and in its vicinity, in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of these efforts;
7. Further welcomes the information that the three mining permits overlapping the property have expired and will not be renewed, and also requests the State Party to further clarify the state of the GEOVIC mining project in the property’s vicinity, and to ensure that potential impacts on the property’s Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) are assessed prior to any resumption of activities, in line with IUCN’s World Heritage Advice Note on Environmental Assessment;
8. Also notes with concern that no information is provided on the specific measures taken to reduce and mitigate the significant potential direct and indirect impacts on the OUV of the property from both the Mekin dam project and the Sud Cameroun Hévéa industrial plantation, as identified in the respective Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) for these developments, and considers therefore that significant progress is required in line with the requests made in Decision 36 COM 7B.1, Paragraph 7 c) and d);
9. Urges the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, as a matter of priority, further information on the measures taken to minimize and mitigate the impacts from the above mentioned projects on the property, particularly in relation to degradation and fragmentation of habitats, and the risk of the proliferation of invasive species;
10. Further requests the State Party to invite a joint World Heritage Centre- IUCN Reactive Monitoring mission to the property to assess progress with the implementation of measures to minimize and mitigate the impacts on the OUV of the property from the Mekin dam project and the Sud Cameroun Hévéa industrial plantation;
11. Requests furthermore 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, with a view to considering, in the absence of substantial progress, the possible inscription of the property on the List of World Heritage in Danger.