Decision 40 COM 7A.35

Comoé National Park (Côte d’Ivoire) (N 227)

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC/16/40.COM/7A,
2. Recalling Decision 39 COM 7A.2, adopted at its 39th session (Bonn, 2015),
3. Warmly welcomes the continued progress achieved by the State Party, in particular the surveillance measures and awareness raising activities among the local communities, to counteract human pressure affecting the property;
4. Notes with concern continued gold prospecting and associated poaching, as well as other threats resulting from human pressure and requests the State Party to pursue its efforts to counteract these threats, to implement the corrective measures and continue the execution of the rehabilitation plan begun in 2015;
5. Also warmly welcomes the willingness of the State Party to prepare Environmental Impact Evaluations (EIEs) for the two mining projects outside the Park should they progress beyond the prospection stage, and reiterates its request to the State Party to ensure that these EIEs include an evaluation of the potential impacts of these projects on the outstanding universal value (OUV) of the property, in conformity with the IUCN Advisory Note on World Heritage: environmental evaluation;
6. Notes with satisfaction the preparation and the implementation of an ecological monitoring strategy prepared with support from GIZ (German Agency for International Cooperation) as well as the inventories of large mammals that have been carried out, also requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, for examination by IUCN, all reports concerning the analysis of data gathered during these inventories to enable confirmation of the re-establishment of large wildlife populations within the Park, and also reiterates its request to the State Party to define, in consultation with the World Heritage Centre and IUCN, the biological indicators for the Desired state of conservation for the removal of the property from the List of World Heritage in Danger (DSOCR);
7. Further reiterates its request to the State Party to invite a joint UNESCO/IUCN reactive monitoring mission to the property as soon as the above-mentioned reports are available, to examine the state of conservation of the property and progress achieved in the implementation of the corrective measures;
8. Also requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 February 2017, an updated report on the state of conservation of the property and the implementation of the corrective measures and the above-mentioned points, for examination by the World Heritage Committee at its 41st session in 2017;
9. Decides to retain Comoé National Park (Côte d'Ivoire) on the List of World Heritage in Danger.