The World Heritage Committee,
- Having examined Document WHC/19/43.COM/7A.Add,
- Recalling Decisions 41 COM 7A.7 and 42 COM 7A.47 adopted at its 41st (Krakow, 2017) and 42nd (Manama, 2018) sessions respectively,
- Welcomes the State Party’s continued efforts to further strengthen its anti-poaching measures, leading to the deployment of more than 200 guards as defined in the corrective measures adopted in 2016 and encourages the State Party to maintain antipoaching surveillance at these levels;
- Also welcomes the decline in the number of poached elephant carcasses and other seized wildlife products in 2018, but notes that it will be important to confirm these positive trends over a longer timeframe;
- Notes with appreciation the State Party’s effort to engage with Lantoto National Park and the Government of South Sudan, and requests the State Party to continue strengthening this cooperation to reduce the transboundary environmental criminal activities, such as poaching and illegal trans-border trade in wildlife products;
- Also notes with appreciation the radio-collaring of four additional elephants and also requests the State Party to continue its efforts to enhance the monitoring and protection of this species;
- Expresses again its deepest concern for the 48 remaining Kordofan giraffes in the property, a subspecies considered critically endangered, and reiterates its request to the State Party to continue the efforts of ecological monitoring and protection of this species, and further requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre the Strategy and Action Plan for the conservation of giraffes in the property, which has reportedly been finalized;
- Also reiterates its request to the State Party to provide an update on progress achieved towards developing a Buffer Zone for the property to strengthen the protection of its Outstanding Universal Value (OUV);
- Notes with concern the continued absence of a Management Plan for the property, urges the State Party to expedite the completion of the General Management Plan and submit a draft copy to the World Heritage Centre for review by IUCN;
- Notes the State Party’s confirmation of the relocation of the refugee camps outside the property and encourages the Park Management authority to continue its efforts to mitigate the threats in and around the property;
- Regrets once again that the State Party has still not submitted the finalized version of the Desired state of conservation for the removal of the property from the List of World Heritage in Danger (DSOCR) and reiterates furthermore its request to the State Party to develop clear indicators for the recovery of key wildlife species populations based on the available data of the 2016 aerial survey and the monitoring system, in order to establish a realistic timeframe for a possible removal of the property from the List of World Heritage in Danger;
- Finally requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 February 2020, 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 44th session in 2020;
- Decides to continue to apply the Reinforced Monitoring Mechanism to the property;
- Also decides to retain Garamba National Park (Democratic Republic of the Congo) on the List of World Heritage in Danger.
