Decision 45 COM 7B.6

Salonga National Park (Democratic Republic of the Congo) (N 280)

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC/23/45.COM/7B,
2. Recalling Decisions 40 COM 7A.40, 43 COM 7A.10 and 44 COM 7A.44 adopted respectively at its 40th (Istanbul/UNESCO, 2016), 43rd (Baku, 2019) sessions, and at its extended 44th session (Fuzhou/online, 2021),
3. Warmly welcomes the formalization of the co-management agreement between the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature (ICCN) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and requests the State Party to continue the implementation of the decisions of the World Heritage Committee and recommendations made by the joint World Heritage Centre/IUCN 2020 Reactive Monitoring mission;
4. Notes with appreciation the various measures taken in response to the findings of the Independent Review of Human Rights Violations by Eco-Guards, including the establishment of a functional complaints and appeals mechanism in response to Decision 44 COM 7A.46, and also requests the State Party to ensure and regularly evaluate the implementation of this mechanism and to ensure that the lessons learned are applied and disseminated to other World Heritage properties in the Democratic Republic of the Congo;
5. Thanks the technical and financial partners (European Union, USAID, KfW, Government of Norway through UNESCO) for their support in the management of the property, recalls the objective of achieving a surveillance rate of 80% of the property to effectively combat illegal activities and urges the State Party to:
   1. Strengthen the human, technical and financial capacities dedicated to the fight against poaching, both in terms of staff and their training, and to accelerate the establishment of a funding mechanism for the implementation of all property management functions,
   2. Intensify the collection of data on species present in the property to complement existing data on populations;
6. Welcomes the decision not to undertake an involuntary relocation of the Yaelima and Kitawala communities and urges the State Party to initiate as soon as possible, in consultation with the World Heritage Centre and IUCN, a constructive dialogue with these communities in accordance with Decision 40 COM 7A.40 in order to assess their socio-economic situation and develop an appropriate strategy relating to their presence in the property or their voluntary relocation and in accordance with the policies of the Convention and the appropriate international standards;
7. Notes with concern the auctioning approved by the Council of Ministers on 8 April 2022 of new oil concessions in the central basin and deeply regrets that the State Party has not yet cancelled the current oil concessions which overlap part of the property, and therefore reiterates its long-standing request to the State Party to cancel its current oil concessions, while not granting new concessions in the property and its periphery which could have negative and irreversible impacts on the Outstanding Universal Value of the property;
8. Recalls that the creation of an operational forest continuum with a view to ensuring ecological functionality between the two blocks of the property remains a conservation priority and reiterates its request to the State Party to finalize as soon as possible the creation of forest concessions for local communities with a vocation for conservation, and to provide this space with a protection status and a simple management plan;
9. Requests that the participatory demarcation of the non-natural boundaries of the property be finalized as soon as possible;
10. 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.