Decision 39 COM 7B.40

Lamu Old Town (Kenya) (C 1055)

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC-15/39.COM/7B.Add,
2. Recalling Decisions 34 COM 7B.46, 35 COM 7B.39, 36 COM 7B.43, 37 COM 7B.40 and 38 COM 7B.49, adopted at its 34th (Brasilia, 2010), 35th (UNESCO, 2011), 36th (Saint-Petersburg, 2012), 37th (Phnom Penh, 2013) and 38th (Doha, 2014) sessions respectively,
3. Notes that the February 2015 Reactive Monitoring mission had to take place in Nairobi due to the security situation in Lamu;
4. Regrets that, despite reporting to the contrary, the State Party did not halt the LAPSSET project in order to allow time for a full assessment of its wider direct and indirect impacts on the property and for appropriate mitigation measures to be defined and implemented;
5. Requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, for review by the Advisory Bodies, details of work so far undertaken for LAPSSET near the property, as well as precise details for the Manda Airport extension and the Lamu resort city, and clarification of fishing plans, mangrove planting, and surveys of coastal morphology;
6. Also requests the State Party to confirm whether the scope of the LAPSSET project will exclude the Lamu archipelago, as suggested to the mission;
7. Welcomes the detailed Heritage Impact Assessment (HIA) undertaken in 2014 on the LAPSSET project and its clear assessment of potential adverse impacts, and stresses the need for detailed discussion among the State Party, the developer, local communities and other stakeholders on how the proposed mitigation measure outlined might be addressed;
8. Invites the State Party to submit HIAs for individual major parts of the overall project; also welcomes the proposed Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and encourages the State Party to ensure that the 2014 HIA is included as an annex to the SEA;
9. Urges the State Party to strengthen the integration of the LAPSSET project with the Lamu City Council and the National Museums of Kenya (NMK), including appointing an NMK representative on the LAPSSET Board, and to widen and strengthen community engagement;
10. Also urges the State Party as soon as possible to put in place stronger development controls for the property and its setting; and recalls its request for the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, for review by the Advisory Bodies, the new chapter of the management plan, covering the LAPSSET development project and integrating the results of the HIA;
11. Reiterates its requests made at its previous sessions for the State Party to furnish maps clarifying the boundaries of the property, and further requests the State Party to define and submit proposals for extending the buffer zone to cover Lamu and Manda islands as a minor boundary modification as soon as they are completed and approved;
12. Further welcomes the detailed recommendations of the 2015 mission and requests furthermore the State Party to take them into account in the development of the LAPSSET project;
13. Requests moreover the State Party to give consideration to the inclusion of a conservation dimension within the LAPSSET project that could support programmes for traditional, sustainable livelihoods and traditional Swahili practices, including building as well as oral traditions;
14. Finally 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.