Decision 44 COM 8B.64

Archaeological Areas of Pompei, Herculaneum and Torre Annunziata (Italy) (C 829)

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Documents WHC/21/44.COM/8B.Add and WHC/21/44.COM/INF.8B1.Add,
2. Refers the proposed buffer zones for Archaeological Areas of Pompei, Herculaneum and Torre Annunziata, Italy, back to the State Party in order to allow it to:
   1. Explain the methodology used to delineate the boundaries of the proposed buffer zones, and clarify how the areas of cultural interest, historical spaces of significance, and other elements of the historic urban landscape included in the proposed buffer zones are functionally important as a support to the property and its protection, to be able to establish whether their inclusion/exclusion of the proposed buffer zones may affect the integrity of the historic urban landscape of the property,
   2. Clarify the reasons why some of the fragments of the original buffer zone were left outside the proposed revised buffer zones,
   3. Provide further information on legal protection in place within the areas of the buffer zones that neither are considered landscape assets nor are protected as cultural heritage, and the existing agreements between private owners of the land,
   4. Describe in details the management arrangements with timelines for the proposed buffer zones, especially with regard to urban development and socio-economic revitalisation in the area, in relation to the existing agreements, and clarify how the management of the buffer zones as historic urban landscapes, and within the premise of sustainable development, will be aligned with and complement the existing management plan of the inscribed property,
   5. Submit revised maps of an appropriate scale in line with the Operational Guidelines (Annex 5 and 11), showing the boundaries of the proposed buffer zones, and with clearly marked elements of the historic urban landscape of which the submitted proposal speaks, in order to demonstrate their relationship to the inscribed property and allow assessing potential impacts of future developments in the area of the proposed buffer zones on the inscribed archaeological areas.