- Having examined Document WHC/16/40.COM/7B,
- Recalling Decision 38 COM 8B.14 adopted at its 38th session (Doha, 2014),
- Warmly welcomes the progress made by the State Party in addressing the concerns raised by the Committee regarding the boundaries of the property, as well as the State Party’s initiative to host an international workshop on the revised management plan of the property, which was attended by representatives from ICOMOS and IUCN;
- Acknowledges the cooperative agreement signed with two United Kingdom-based universities for a comprehensive 5-year programme (2015 to 2020) of archaeological and palaeo-environmental research;
- Notes with significant concern that the State Party has not included adequate measures in the revised management plan concerning the management of tourism and cultural heritage, and requests the State Party to:
- Ensure measures are in place to limit overcrowding, including the establishment of a clearly justified maximum daily quota for peak and normal visitation days,
- Include sections concerning the archaeological heritage, which clearly detail the actions to be undertaken, in terms of staff training, conservation/restoration methods, and long-term planning,
- Develop the skills of the management body to successfully plan the management of the archaeological heritage at the property,
- Establish a system for the cataloguing, condition-surveying, monitoring and protection of archaeological heritage through conservation measures, in order to adequately conserve archaeological artefacts;
- Also requests the State Party to undertake an assessment of the facilities and services required to adequately service the anticipated increase in visitation from one to two million visitors, including the extrapolated festival-day peaks of up to 50,000;
- Further requests the State Party to clarify whether or not any additional recreational activities are to be encouraged, where they will be permitted, what facilities will be provided and identify the potential impacts on OUV and how they will be addressed;
- Also notes with concern that the revised Management Plan refers to a new urban university area in Bai Dinh, which would result in a population growth of 20,000 people within the buffer zone by 2030, and requests furthermore the State Party to:
- Submit, in accordance with Paragraph 172 of the Operational Guidelines, detailed information on any proposed development projects within the property, its buffer zone and setting for review by the World Heritage Centre and the Advisory Bodies prior to any decisions being taken that could be difficult to reverse,
- Undertake a Strategic Environmental Assessment for development of the buffer zone, taking into account potential impacts on the OUV of the property in line with IUCN’s World Heritage Advice Note on Environmental Assessment and a Heritage Impact Assessment (HIA) in conformity with the ICOMOS Guidelines on HIAs for Cultural World Heritage properties for the proposed projects, prior to allowing any such development to take place;
- Requests moreover the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 December 2017, 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 42nd session in 2018.
Decision 40 COM 7B.67
Trang An Landscape Complex (Viet Nam) (C/N 1438)
The World Heritage Committee,
Decision Code
40 COM 7B.67
Themes
Properties 1
Year
2016
State of conservation reports
2016 Trang An Landscape Complex
Documents
WHC/16/40.COM/19
Report of the Decisions adopted during the 40th session of the World Heritage Committee (Istanbul/UNESCO, 2016)