Decision 41 COM 7A.5

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

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC/17/41.COM/7A.Add,
2. Recalling Decision 40 COM 7A.35, adopted at its 40th session (Istanbul/UNESCO, 2016),
3. Commends the State Party for the efforts made in the implementation of the corrective measures and the significant progress made towards achieving the Desired state of conservation for the removal of the property from the List of World Heritage in Danger (DSOCR) since the normalization of the political situation in the country, including the establishment of a functional management body and a sustainable financing mechanism for the conservation of the property;
4. Considers that the DSOCR indicators for the integrity and management of the property have been fully achieved and even surpassed, and that the biological indicators have attained a satisfactory level of achievement;
5. Decides to remove Comoé National Park (Côte d'Ivoire) from the List of World Heritage in Danger;
6. Requests the State Party to continue and to consolidate the ecological monitoring activities and the inventorying of large fauna by strengthening the synergy and consistency of methodological approaches in order to confirm the maintenance of positive trends in the populations of key species;
7. Notes with appreciation the State Party's commitment to assess the potential impacts of the mining projects on the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the property and also requests the State Party to submit the Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) to the World Heritage Centre for review by IUCN before hard-to-reverse decisions are made regarding the licensing of these projects in accordance with Paragraph 172 of the Operational Guidelines;
8. Notes with concern that gold panning persists in the property and further requests the State Party to take all appropriate measures to systematically eradicate this activity within the property and monitor its development around the property in collaboration with the technical services in charge of the mining sector;
9. Recognizing the significant efforts made by the State Party to address roaming of livestock in the property, notes the increase in this phenomenon in 2016, which appears to be linked to a particularly severe pre-harvest period, and urges the State Party to exclude livestock from the property by strengthening surveillance, awareness raising and agro-pastoral development activities, and by conducting a preliminary study of the potential impacts of these agro-pastoral developments on the OUV of the property;
10. Further requests the State Party to implement all other recommendations of the joint UNESCO / IUCN Reactive Monitoring mission of 2017;
11. Finally requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 December 2018, an updated report on the state of conservation of the property and the implementation of the above, for examination by the World Heritage Committee at its 43rd session in 2019.