Manovo-Gounda St Floris National Park
Factors affecting the property in 2000*
- Identity, social cohesion, changes in local population and community
- Illegal activities
- Livestock farming / grazing of domesticated animals
- Management systems/ management plan
Factors* affecting the property identified in previous reports
- Heavy poaching;
- Lack of management plan;
- Possible transfer of the management of the site to a private foundation
International Assistance: requests for the property until 2000
Total amount approved : 0 USD
Missions to the property until 2000**
Information presented to the Bureau of the World Heritage Committee in 2000
Summary of previous deliberations:
Twenty-third session of the Committee – paragraph number – X.3
Twenty-third ordinary session of the Bureau – paragraph number – IV.2
New information: The President of the State Party has not yet responded to letters from the Director-General and the Chairperson, transmitting the recommendations of the twenty-second (Kyoto, Japan, 1998) and the twenty-third (Marrakesh, Morocco, 1999) sessions of the Committee, inviting the President’s urgent intervention for the preparation of a detailed state of conservation report and a rehabilitation plan for the conservation of the site. The IUCN Regional Office for Central Africa met with a group of wildlife managers from CAR on 30 March 2000; the managers reported that the impacts due to poachers entering CAR from other countries in the region continues to have serious impacts on this site. IUCN has learned that the CAR Government has sent a number of armed military personnel into the area to mitigate the poaching threat.
Action Required
Conservation issues presented to the World Heritage Committee in 2000
In July 2000, the Centre was contacted by Earth Conservancy, a US based non-governmental organisation, claiming that it has been given the opportunity to manage three national parks in CAR for a twenty-year period beginning from the year 2000. As requested by representatives of the NGO, a meeting was held in UNESCO on 20 July 2000 in which staff from the Centre, UNESCO’s Bureau for Extrabudgetary Resources and the Director General’s Office participated. The representatives of the NGO and a staff of the Government of CAR visited the Centre from 1 to 7 August 2000, soon after their on-site visit during the latter part of July 2000, and informed the Centre that poaching and illegal entry into the site by armed groups from neighbouring countries continued to occur.
A representative of the CAR Ministry of Forests, Environment and Water and Hunting and Fisheries is due to present a paper on the state of conservation of the site at a Centre/IUCN workshop on the "Role of World Heritage in Danger Listing in Promoting International Cooperation for the Conservation of World Natural Heritage" in Amman, Jordan, during 6-7 October 2000. Information reported at the workshop and the outcome of discussions between the CAR participant and the Centre and IUCN staff will be reported at the time of the twenty-fourth session of the Committee.
Summary of the interventions
Decisions adopted by the Committee in 2000
24 BUR IV.A.4
Manovo-Gounda-St.Floris National Park (Central African Republic (CAR))
The Bureau expressed its concern that the President of the State Party had not yet responded to letters from the Director-General and the Chairperson, transmitting the recommendations of the twenty-second (Kyoto, Japan, 1998) and the twenty-third (Marrakesh, Morocco, 1999) sessions of the Committee. The letters invited the President’s urgent intervention for the preparation of a detailed state of conservation report and a rehabilitation plan for the conservation of the site. The Bureau noted the information reported by IUCN that poachers entering CAR from other countries in the region continue to have serious impacts on this site and that the CAR Government has sent a number of armed military personnel into the area to mitigate the poaching threat.
The Bureau, once again, reiterated the Committee’s decision, taken at its twenty- second and twenty-third sessions, and invited the President of the State Party to directly intervene in favour of the conservation of the site to prepare a state of conservation report and an emergency rehabilitation plan. The Bureau instructed the Centre to co-operate with the Ambassador of CAR in France and the Permanent Delegate of CAR to UNESCO, as well as with site representatives who may attend the periodic reporting workshop for West and Central Africa to obtain an official response from the President of CAR to the afore-mentioned letters. This Workshop will be convened by the Centre in Senegal during early July 2000. The Bureau recommended that the Committee retain this site in the List of World Heritage in Danger.
24 COM VIII.5
Manovo-Gounda-St.Floris National Park (Central African Republic (CAR))
VIII.5 Manovo-Gounda-St.Floris National Park (Central African Republic (CAR))
The Committee was informed that a representative of the State Party had presented a paper on the state of conservation of the site at the Amman Workshop held on 6 and 7 October 2000. He had confirmed that poaching, including by armed groups from neighbouring States, was widespread in the area and that an UNESCO/IUCN mission to the site to plan mitigation and rehabilitation measures would be welcome. The UNESCO National Commission of CAR had contacted the Centre and plans to field a mission were underway. The Committee noted opportunities for possible collaboration with a US-based non-governmental organisation, namely the Earth Conservancy.
The Committee thanked the UNESCO National Commission of CAR for facilitating discussions to plan and field a mission to the site and for arrangements to prepare a state of conservation report and a rehabilitation plan. The Committee urged the Centre and IUCN to undertake the mission as early as possible in 2001 with a view to submitting a comprehensive report to the twentyfifth session of the Bureau in 2001. The Committee retained the site in the List of World Heritage in Danger.
The Committee may wish to review new information that may be available at the time of its session and take necessary decisions and recommend appropriate actions to the consideration of the State Party, advisory bodies and the Centre.
Central African Republic
Exports
* :
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.
