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Dja Faunal Reserve

Cameroon
Factors affecting the property in 2017*
  • Commercial hunting
  • Forestry /wood production
  • Illegal activities
  • Land conversion
  • Livestock farming / grazing of domesticated animals
  • Management systems/ management plan
  • Water infrastructure
Factors* affecting the property identified in previous reports
  • Lack of entire approval and implementation of management plan
  • Agricultural and forest encroachment
  • Mining exploitation project close to the property (issue resolved)
  • Industrial agriculture in the buffer zone
  • Threats exerted by commercial hunting and deforestation around the property
  • Mékin hydroelectric dam
  • Poaching
UNESCO Extra-Budgetary Funds until 2017

Total amount granted: USD 60,000, UNESCO Netherlands Funds in Trust ; USD 200,000 in 2016, in the framework of the Central Africa World Heritage Forest Initiative (CAWHFI) and USD 263 700 from Franz Weber Foundation for the sustainable conservation of the Dja Faunal Reserve

International Assistance: requests for the property until 2017
Requests approved: 4 (from 1987-1997)
Total amount approved : 84,700 USD
Conservation issues presented to the World Heritage Committee in 2017

On 9 December 2016, the World Heritage Centre wrote a letter to the State Party requesting information concerning the partial impoundment of the Mékin Hydroelectric Dam, located in the periphery of the property, where work commenced on 11 November 2016 and which had caused a flood, cutting off the roads and damaging to the forests. In particular, the World Heritage Centre requested the State Party to report whether mitigation measures on the negative impacts had been undertaken prior to the operation, as outlined in the Environmental Management and Social Plan (PGES) of the project. On 15 February 2017, the World Heritage Centre sent a reminder to the State Party, further clarifying that the response of the State Party to the other elements contained in Decision 40 COM 7B.79 would be examined by the Committee at its 42nd session in 2018, as foreseen.

On 27 February 2017, the State Party sent a letter to the World Heritage Centre informing it that a mid-term report on the above-mentioned issue would be transmitted shortly. However, at the time of drafting this document, this report had not yet been submitted.

Analysis and Conclusion by World Heritage Centre and the Advisory Bodies in 2017

It is recommended that the Committee express its utmost concern regarding the damage to the forests, but also to the fields and plantations of the local communities, caused by the partial impoundment of the Mékin Dam and the resulting flooding.

It should be recalled that during its 40th session, the Committee expressed its deep concern about the fact that the joint World Heritage Centre/IUCN Reactive Monitoring mission of 2015 had noted that the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the property would be seriously threatened, in the event that the Mékin Dam was completed without any mitigation measure in place to reduce the negative impacts of this project. The flooding blocked all the roads and paralysed the bridge on the River Lobo, cutting off traffic between Bengbis and Mayomessala; this situation indicates that the mitigation measures for the negative impacts of the dam to the local communities were not implemented, or at the least were not efficacious.

The Committee had, moreover, adopted the corrective measures proposed by the mission that recommended the inscription of the property on the List of World Heritage in Danger. These measures request, among others, that the State Party urgently implement the PGES ensuring that the mitigation measures for the negative impacts of the dam on the property be carried out. It is therefore recommended that the Committee reiterate to the State Party the need to implement this corrective measure, and request it to provide detailed information on the mitigation measures taken after the impoundment of the dam.

It is also recommended that the Committee note with concern that the property remains in a very fragile situation as regards ascertained threats and that the State Party consider its possible inscription on the List of World Heritage in Danger, during its 42nd session in 2018 if substantial progress is not achieved in the implementation of Decision 40 COM 7B.79.

Decisions adopted by the Committee in 2017
41 COM 7B.18
Dja Wildlife Reserve (Cameroon) (N 407)

The World Heritage Committee,

  1. Having examined Document WHC/17/41.COM/7B.Add,
  2. Recalling Decision 40 COM 7B.79, adopted at its 40th session (Istanbul/UNESCO, 2016),
  3. Expresses its deep concern as regards the damage to the forests, but also to the fields and plantations of the local communities, caused by the flood provoked by the partial impoundment of the Mékin Dam, and as regards the extremely fragile situation of the property in the face of these threats;
  4. Reiterates its deep concern regarding the fact that the joint World Heritage/IUCN Reactive Monitoring mission of 2015 had noted that the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the property was at risk from serious threats in the event that the construction of the Mékin Dam was completed without any mitigation measure in place to reduce the negative impacts of this project;
  5. Again urges the State Party to urgently implement the Environmental and Social Management Plan (PGES) ensuring that the mitigation measures for negative impacts of the dam on the property are implemented;
  6. Requests the State Party to provide detailed information on the measures undertaken to mitigate the impacts caused by the partial impoundment of the dam to the property;
  7. Also requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 February 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 42nd session in 2018, with a view to considering, in the absence of significant progress in the implementation of the above-mentioned measures and those contained in its Decision 40 COM 7B.79, the possible inscription of the property on the List of World Heritage in Danger.
Draft Decision: 41 COM 7B.18

The World Heritage Committee,

  1. Having examined Document WHC/17/41.COM/7B.Add,
  2. Recalling Decision 40 COM 7B.79, adopted at its 40th session (Istanbul/UNESCO, 2016),
  3. Expresses its deep concern as regards the damage to the forests, but also to the fields and plantations of the local communities, caused by the flood provoked by the partial impoundment of the Mékin Dam, and as regards the extremely fragile situation of the property in the face of these threats;
  4. Reiterates its deep concern regarding the fact that the joint World Heritage/IUCN Reactive Monitoring mission of 2015 had noted that the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the property was at risk from serious threats in the event that the construction of the Mékin Dam was completed without any mitigation measure in place to reduce the negative impacts of this project;
  5. Again urges the State Party to urgently implement the Environmental and Social Management Plan (PGES) ensuring that the mitigation measures for negative impacts of the dam on the property are implemented;
  6. Requests the State Party to provide detailed information on the measures undertaken to mitigate the impacts caused by the partial impoundment of the dam to the property;
  7. Also requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 February 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 42nd session in 2018, with a view to considering, in the absence of significant progress in the implementation of the above-mentioned measures and those contained in its Decision 40 COM 7B.79, the possible inscription of the property on the List of World Heritage in Danger.
Report year: 2017
Cameroon
Date of Inscription: 1987
Category: Natural
Criteria: (ix)(x)
Documents examined by the Committee
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.


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