Take advantage of the search to browse through the World Heritage Centre information.

i
ii
iii
iv
v
vi
vii
viii
ix
x

Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove

Nigeria
Factors affecting the property in 2017*
  • Fire (widlfires)
  • Ground transport infrastructure
  • Housing
  • Impacts of tourism / visitor / recreation
  • Major visitor accommodation and associated infrastructure
  • Surface water pollution
Factors* affecting the property identified in previous reports
  • Urban development close to the property
  • Road construction around the property
  • Pollution of the Osun River
  • Bush fires within the property
  • Adverse impact of the commercialisation of the annual festival
  • Fragility of spiritual, symbolic and ritual qualities of the Grove in the face of a growth in visitor numbers and the lack of a tourism management plan
  • Road through property not re-aligned
International Assistance: requests for the property until 2017
Requests approved: 1 (from 1999-1999)
Total amount approved : 10,000 USD
Missions to the property until 2017**

October 2015: ICOMOS Reactive Monitoring mission

Conservation issues presented to the World Heritage Committee in 2017

In October 2015, an ICOMOS Reactive Monitoring mission visited the property (mission report available at https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1118/documents), at the request of the Committee.

On 21 November 2016, the State Party submitted a report on the state of conservation of the property, which is available at the above-mentioned web address, and provides an update on the state of conservation but does not refer directly to the detailed recommendations of the mission. The report includes the following:

  • Management Plan – urban development, tourism and risk preparedness plans: A revised Conservation Management Plan 2015-2019 has been prepared and incorporates Cultural Tourism Management, Risk Preparedness Plans and new measures to eliminate development impacts and potential development threats. New measures have also been introduced during the Festival for crowd control and protection of sensitive sites. The revised Conservation Management Plan was submitted to the World Heritage Centre for review on 13 August 2015 prior to the ICOMOS mission;
  • Conservation approach and forward planning for conservation work on sculptures: Major restoration work on the monumental sculptures in the grove has been started with a project launched on 24 November 2015. The restoration project has three phases and is planned to last four years. The project is in its second phase and has recorded the restoration of 13 sculptures and 27 motifs on the wall/ fence around the grove;
  • Details are provided on the materials to be used in future work. The conservation unit of the National Museum, Osogbo, now has a plan for on-going maintenance work;
  • The Festival Committee has agreed to release 5% of the funds realized by the Annual Festival to the National Commission for Museums and Monuments, to be used for conservation and restoration works in the grove after each festival;
  • Conservation of natural resources: Work on cleaning and clearing the polluted river has continued and has been supported by radio and television enlightenment campaigns. Together, these actions are said to have reduced the pollution levels in the river, which is used for medicinal and spiritual purposes by those attending the annual Osun Osogbo Festival.
  • A programme for replanting trees in areas that were previously disturbed is on-going.
Analysis and Conclusion by World Heritage Centre and the Advisory Bodies in 2017

While welcoming the progress reported, the lack of details means that it is not readily possible to understand whether and how the detailed recommendations of the 2015 Reactive Monitoring mission have been addressed.

One of the main priority recommendations of the mission was the need for conservation work on the sculptures to be underpinned by a more carefully considered conservation methodology which addresses the philosophy behind the conservation and how it should carried out. Such an approach needs to be based on research into appropriate materials for shelter coats of the mud sculpture as an alternative to cement which cracks over time. These recommendations have so far not been responded to as no overall conservation approach is suggested and the materials set out include different colours of cement but no suggestion as to how a more flexible shelter coat might be developed. Thus, while the planned programme of conservation is to be welcomed, there is concern that this is being implemented without adequate guidance being put in place.

As the waters of the river flowing through the Grove are considered sacred and used by devotees during the annual Festival, the mission considered that it was essential that the water quality be monitored through laboratory analysis on a regular basis and, if the river was found to be polluted, visitors should be warned of the hazards of touching the water. Assurances that these recommendations have been carried out have not been provided.

Although the fact that 5% of the Festival income is now provided for conservation work, it is said that this is all spent on reversing the negative impacts of the Festival crowds. As the mission pointed out, the Sacred Grove is what attracts participants to the Festival and it is the conservation of the Grove that should benefit from its success. This means that an appropriate percentage of income should be allocated to support long-term conservation, not just reversing the impact of the Festival activities.

The recommendations of the mission to what was seen as an over-commercialization of the Festival, incompatible with its sacred status, were not addressed in the report. 

The mission acknowledged the need to document the complex three dimensional sculptures and set out recommendations for graphic, photographic and photogrammetric documentation that could be used for monitoring; details as to how this need has been addressed need to be provided.

In terms of regeneration of the sacred forest (to reverse former agricultural encroachment), the mission considered that knowledge of staff should be supplemented with advice from professional nature conservation specialists on appropriate methods for forest regeneration. This does not appear to have been followed.

Moreover, in its report, the mission stressed the need to undertake further revision of the Conservation Management Plan 2015-2019, including the Tourism Management Plan, by incorporating the detailed recommendations of the mission. It appears that this revision has not been carried out and it is recommended that the Committee urge the State Party to undertake such an update as a matter of urgency.

Other recommendations of the mission that were not addressed in the report are those relating to community engagement, lack of resources for professional staff, inclusion of staff in Festival planning, fencing the buffer zone, and plans for a proposed new road and bridge.

Decisions adopted by the Committee in 2017
41 COM 7B.70
Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove (Nigeria) (C 1118)

The World Heritage Committee,

  1. Having examined Document WHC/17/41.COM/7B,
  2. Recalling Decision 39 COM 7B.43, adopted at its 39th session (Bonn, 2015),
  3. Welcomes the progress made by the State Party in regard to the development of a conservation project for the sculptures;
  4. Recognizing the vulnerabilities of the property, as identified by the 2015 Reactive Monitoring mission, expresses its concern that the detailed recommendations of the mission were not specifically addressed in the submitted report and that no progress appears to have been made with significant mission recommendations relating to the development of defined conservation methodology, analysis of the polluted river water, over-commercialization of the Festival, support of the Festival for on-going conservation work, community engagement, lack of resources for professional staff, fencing the buffer zone and plans for a proposed new road and bridge;
  5. Considers that more clearly-defined progress is needed across a wide range of activities in order to put the management of the property onto a more sustainable basis;
  6. Urges the State Party to address, as a matter of urgency, the detailed recommendations of the mission, in particular the review of the Conservation Management Plan, with, if necessary, advice from ICOMOS, and to halt further conservation work until a conservation methodology has been developed and submitted to the World Heritage Centre, for review by the Advisory Bodies;
  7. Requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 December 2018, 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 43rd session in 2019.
Draft Decision: 41 COM 7B.70

The World Heritage Committee,

  1. Having examined Document WHC/17/41.COM/7B,
  2. Recalling Decision 39 COM 7B.43, adopted at its 39th session (Bonn, 2015),
  3. Welcomes the progress made by the State Party in regard to the development of a conservation project for the sculptures;
  4. Recognizing the vulnerabilities of the property, as identified by the 2015 Reactive Monitoring mission, expresses its concern that the detailed recommendations of the mission were not specifically addressed in the submitted report and that no progress appears to have been made with significant mission recommendations relating to the development of defined conservation methodology, analysis of the polluted river water, over-commercialization of the Festival, support of the Festival for on-going conservation work, community engagement, lack of resources for professional staff, fencing the buffer zone and plans for a proposed new road and bridge;
  5. Considers that more clearly-defined progress is needed across a wide range of activities in order to put the management of the property onto a more sustainable basis;
  6. Urges the State Party to address, as a matter of urgency, the detailed recommendations of the mission, in particular the review of the Conservation Management Plan, with, if necessary, advice from ICOMOS, and to halt further conservation work until a conservation methodology has been developed and submitted to the World Heritage Centre, for review by the Advisory Bodies;
  7. Requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 December 2018, 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 43rd session in 2019.
Report year: 2017
Nigeria
Date of Inscription: 2005
Category: Cultural
Criteria: (ii)(iii)(vi)
Documents examined by the Committee
SOC Report by the State Party
Report (2016) .pdf
arrow_circle_right 41COM (2017)
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.


top