Decision 45 COM 7B.121

Historic Town of Grand-Bassam (Côte d’Ivoire) (C 1322rev)

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC/23/45.COM/7B.Add,
2. Recalling Decision 44 COM 7B.2 adopted at its extended 44th session (Fuzhou/online, 2021),
3. Thanks the State Party for having provided the report on the inventory of the immovable heritage of the historic town of Grand-Bassam and the Conservation and Management Plan for the property for a technical evaluation by the Advisory Bodies, and requests the State Party to integrate the observations of this evaluation when they become available;
4. Welcomes the actions taken for the conservation, management and promotion of the property, including regular inspections of the site by the management body and the Town Hall of Grand-Bassam and the rehabilitation and restoration initiatives carried out on several heritage buildings, and requests the State Party to continue these efforts, notably by:
   1. Updating the site intervention guide, a first edition of which was prepared by the CRAterre-ENSAG organization, to communicate architectural and urban prescriptions, particularly for private buildings,
   2. Reinforcing measures to raise community awareness of the need to conserve and enhance the property as part of ongoing and future rehabilitation activities,
   3. Further developing Public/Private Partnership (PPP) programmes and inform the World Heritage Centre of any major intervention on the built environment, in accordance with Paragraph 172 of the Operational Guidelines, in order to prevent any possible impact on the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the property,
   4. Improving the intervention capacities of the Executive Secretariat by strengthening its own financial and technical resources;
5. Notes with appreciation the actions undertaken, such as the future domiciliation of the property’s management body in the Officers' Mess and the creation of a museum of contemporary Ivorian art in the former Post and Customs House, and requests the State Party to broaden this approach by integrating the 2011 Recommendation concerning the Historic Urban Landscape into urban planning and into the management and promotion of the property;
6. Reiterates its thanks to the Government of Norway for its financial support for the implementation of a programme for the preservation of the property;
7. Expresses its concern at the fact that the work to open the mouth of the Comoé River as part of the project to safeguard and enhance the Cocody Bay and Ebrié Lagoon (PABC) is progressing without consultation between the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, the Advisory Bodies and the project managers to discuss the project’s conformity with the prerogatives of the Convention, as requested by the Committee at its extended 44th session, and reiterates its request to the State Party to submit the PABC to the World Heritage Centre, as soon as possible, for review by the Advisory Bodies so that solutions can be found to adapt the approach to the recommendations provided in the report of the October 2019 emergency mission;
8. Takes note of the threats posed by the reported proliferation of aquatic plants in the lagoon water body, and recommends that the State Party, in particular, develop a plan for the control of invasive species and clean up the water body according to the severity of the proliferation on the maintenance of water quality;
9. Requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 December 2024, 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 47th session.