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State of Conservation (SOC)

Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve (1991)

UNESCO Extra-Budgetary Funds
International Assistance granted to the property

Requests Approved: 0 (from1982-1988)
Total Amount Ap proved: 168,000USD

1988   Equipment for Rio Platano Biosphere Reserve   20,000  USD
1987   Consultant services, training and equipment for improving the ...   30,000  USD
1985   Strengthen protection and management of Rio Platano Biosphere ...   20,000  USD
1983   Implementation of protective measures, of training activities and ...   26,000  USD
1982   Financial contribution towards ecodevelopment programmes and ...   67,025  USD
1982   Rio Platano Biosphere Reserve   4,975  USD
Missions**
Factors* affecting the property identified in previous reports

Extreme pressure with the invasion of refugees and settlers into the Reserve; Illegal tree felling; Poaching; Road construction

Corrective Measures
Current conservation issues

The Bureau recalled that the Honduran authorities had requested the Committee, at its last session, to include this site in the List of World Heritage in Danger.

The Committee had suggested at that time that the Honduran authorities submit a request for international assistance from the World Heritage Fund. The Bureau noted that such a request had not yet been received and urged the Secretariat and IUCN to work through National MAB and IUCN networks in order to bring forward a request for the consideration of the Committee at its forthcoming session.

The recommendations of the Bureau were transmitted to the Executive Director of the Associacion Hondurena de Ecologica, which was responsible for the management of this site, by letter of 21 August 1991. Subsequently, the Secretariat was informed that a Department of Protected Areas and Forestry had been vested with the authority to manage all natural heritage areas in Honduras and was requested to send all relevant materials to prepare a request for inscribing this site on the List of World Heritage in Danger to this new Government Department.

Such a request is expected to be received shortly.

Conclusion
Decision

  • Adopted

  • Draft Decision

15COMVIII
Link to the decision

Rio Platano Biosphere Reserve (Honduras)

The Committee noted that there had been a recent change in the national agency responsible for the management of this site. The Vice-President of Honduras requested the Committee at its last session to include this site in the List of World Heritage in Danger. The Committee was informed that the new management authority would submit to the Secretariat a request for international assistance in order to enable the Committee to consider including this site in the List of World Heritage in Danger.

 

No draft Decision

Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve
State Party:
Honduras
Date of Inscription: 1982
Nomination records (Year): 1981
Category: Natural
Criteria: (vii)(viii)(ix)(x)
Exports
Word File
SOC Reports (year)
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
1991
1990
1989
1988
Threats*
  • Ground transport infrastructure
  • Identity, social cohesion, changes in local population and community
  • Illegal activities
  • Other Threats:
Documents
SC.91/CONF.002/04 Add
Other Documents:
View inscribed site documents, nomination file, reports, decisions, ...
SOC ID: 1658
Inscription on the Danger List
Year: 2011
Threats to the Site:

a)  Illegal logging;
b) Illegal occupation;
c) Reduced capacity of the State Party;
d) General deterioration of law and order and the security situation in the region.

Year: 1996 -2007
Threats to the Site:

At both its 19th and 20th sessions, the World Heritage Committee heard reports of commercial and agricultural intrusions into the site, threatening the World Heritage values for which it had been inscribed. The advancing agricultural frontier at the west side of the reserve, pushed by small farmers and cattle ranchers, is already reducing the reserve's forest area. The southern and western zones of the Reserve are subject to massive extraction of precious wood such as Caoba (Swietenia macrophylla). Uncontrolled commercial hunting of wild animals is also practised. The introduction of exotic species is threatening to undermine the complex ecosystem of the Reserve. The absence of any management plan and the fact that there is almost no park staff to manage the 525,100 ha site has compounded the problem.

An eleven-point corrective action plan, recommended by a 1996 IUCN conservation status report, has been endorsed by the Minister for the Environment of Honduras and the elaboration of a management plan for Rio Platano is being carried out with a World Heritage Fund contribution, as part of a large-scale project for strengthening the conservation of the site financed by the German GTZ-KFW.

A hydroelectric development project, Patuca II, is currently proposed for implementation near the reserve with potential negative impacts on the site. According to reports, the Government is promoting the rapid implementation of this project. Matters are further complicated by the fact that communications with relevant authorities in Honduras have become difficult following recent damages caused to the country's infrastructure by Hurricane Mitch.


* : The threats indicated are listed in alphabetical order; their order does not constitute a classification according to the importance of their impact on the property.
Furthermore, they are presented irrespective of the type of threat faced by the property, i.e. with specific and proven imminent danger (“ascertained danger”) or with threats which could have deleterious effects on the property’s Outstanding Universal Value (“potential danger”).

** : All mission reports are not always available electronically.