1.         Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve (Honduras) (N 196)

Year of inscription on the World Heritage List  1982

Criteria  (vii)(viii)(ix)(x)

Year(s) of inscription on the List of World Heritage in Danger    1996-2007, 2011-present

Threats for which the property was inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger

Desired state of conservation for the removal of the property from the List of World Heritage in Danger

Adopted, see page https://whc.unesco.org/en/decisions/6236 

Corrective measures identified

Adopted, see page https://whc.unesco.org/en/decisions/4439  

Timeframe for the implementation of the corrective measures

Adopted, see page https://whc.unesco.org/en/decisions/6236 

Previous Committee Decisions  see page https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/196/documents/

International Assistance

Requests approved: 0 (from 1982-2015)
Total amount approved: USD 223,628
For details, see page https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/196/assistance/

UNESCO Extra-budgetary Funds

Total amount granted: USD 80,000 (in addition to approximately USD 100,000 of in-kind technical assistance) under the management effectiveness assessment project “Enhancing our Heritage” 

Previous monitoring missions

November 1995 and October 2000: IUCN Reactive Monitoring missions; 2003, 2006 and 2011: Joint World Heritage Centre/IUCN Reactive Monitoring missions; October 2017: Advisory mission facilitated by the World Heritage Centre

Factors affecting the property identified in previous reports

Illustrative material  see page https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/196/

Conservation issues presented to the World Heritage Committee in 2018

On 2 February 2018, the State Party submitted a state of conservation report including an annexed report on the Patuca III hydroelectric project, which is available at http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/196/documents. An Advisory mission financed by the World Heritage Fund was undertaken to the property in October 2017 with the objective to support the State Party on its path towards the removal of the property from the List of World Heritage in Danger. The mission report is also available at the above link.

The State Party’s report responds to Decision 41 COM 7A.3 as follows:

Analysis and Conclusions of the World Heritage Centre and IUCN

The granting of rights to indigenous peoples and local, including Afro-Honduran, communities is welcomed, also as one step towards compliance with the corrective measures adopted by the Committee.  Likewise, the continuation of bi-lateral cooperation in support of innovative governance and management solutions is appreciated.  While the consolidation of local rights and responsibilities entails some delegation of governmental tasks, systemic underfunding and understaffing remain unresolved challenges. Sustained governmental funding continues to be a priority need, especially in light of the volatility of project funding, and in order to ensure adequate law enforcement, including in the core zone of the biosphere reserve, presence on the ground and systematic monitoring, harmonized under the existing integrated monitoring system (SIMONI). The risk of further illegal settlements in the core zone of the biosphere reserve and the property remains high. It is recommended that the Committee reiterate its recommendation that the State Party maintain overflights and ground level surveys to detect illegal activities and new settlements as early as possible to enable immediate responses.

Despite still unclear boundaries, it is undisputed that the property and its buffer zone are located within the internationally recognized Biosphere Reserve. The efforts to grant meaningful local rights in the biosphere reserve therefore amount to an entirely new approach to the governance and management of the property. This changing reality is to be fully reflected in all efforts towards the removal of the property from the List of World Heritage in Danger and the parallel Significant Boundary Modification. It is welcomed that the State Party endorses the Committee’s consideration to manage both processes as one coherent effort on the understanding that a Significant Boundary Modification will have to follow the procedures of a new nomination. The State Party accurately points out that both processes require full local and indigenous consent to avoid that the boundary modification be interpreted as challenging existing sensitive management and tenure arrangements currently being agreed upon with indigenous peoples and local communities. However, to achieve the removal of the property from the List of World Heritage in Danger - in line with the Desired state of conservation for the removal of the property from this list (DSOCR) adopted in 2015 - it is neither possible nor desirable to re-create the exact same boundaries that existed at the time of the property’s inscription in 1982. The boundary modification is a key element towards the removal from the List of World Heritage in Danger; both aim at satisfying currently unmet World Heritage requirements, while fully respecting the fundamentally altered governance and management approach and the evolving terms of engagement between governmental institutions and local communities and indigenous peoples. It is recommended that the Committee strongly encourage the State Party to initiate a participatory process to elaborate a proposal for a Significant Boundary Modification serving to consolidate promising changes in management and governance. Both the new nomination and the efforts to remove the property from the List of World Heritage in Danger must demonstrate the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of Río Plátano in a spatial configuration to be defined and according to the evolving governance and management. This implies not only the need to comply with World Heritage criteria, but also to meet the conditions of integrity and to have an adequate management system. In line with Paragraph 119 of the Operational Guidelines, it must be ensured that any sustainable use will not impact adversely on the property’s OUV.

The information provided to date on the Patuca III (Piedras Amarillas) hydropower project does not address potential impacts on the OUV of the property, which is among the adopted corrective measures and has been requested in several past Committee decisions. The commitment of the ICF to request that the Dirección General de Evaluación y Control Ambiental (General Direction for Environmental Evaluation and Control) provide recommendations focused on the project’s potential impacts to OUV is however noted. It is regrettable that earlier research on environmental flows to identify possible mitigation options does not appear to have continued. It is recommended that the Committee express its utmost concern about the apparent lack of information on possible impacts of the project on the property and the biosphere reserve, and request that the project not proceed until the above-mentioned assessment is concluded and reviewed by the Advisory Bodies. 

Decision Adopted: 42 COM 7A.44

The World Heritage Committee,

  1. Having examined Document WHC/18/42.COM/7A,
  2. Recalling Decision 41 COM 7A.3, adopted at its 41st session (Kraków, 2017),
  3. Commends the State Party and governmental and non-governmental partners on continued progress made in land titling and granting negotiated local access to natural resources in the buffer and cultural zones of the biosphere reserve, encourages the State Party and partners involved to consolidate the innovative and promising governance mechanisms and urges the State Party to develop an effective and funded exit strategy to sustain these advances beyond the duration of external project support;
  4. Reiterates its strong concern that human, financial and logistical resources allocated by the State Party continue to be insufficient to ensure systematic law enforcement, presence on the ground and adequate monitoring of the property;
  5. Reiterates its recommendation that the State Party maintain the overflights and ground level surveys to detect illegal activities and illegal new settlements as early as possible to enable immediate responses, avoiding evictions after the full establishment of settlements;
  6. Also urges the State Party to take concrete steps to follow up on the updated conclusions and recommendations facilitated by the 2017 Advisory mission regarding the Significant Boundary Modification and the efforts to remove the property from the List of World Heritage in Danger - in line with the Desired state of conservation for the removal of the property from the List of World Heritage in Danger (DSOCR) adopted in 2015 - with the technical support of the World Heritage Centre and IUCN, as required;
  7. Welcomes the acknowledgement of the possible benefits of a Significant Boundary Modification by the State Party, while fully respecting the interests, rights and aspirations of indigenous peoples, Afro-Honduran and Ladino (mestizo) communities;
  8. Expresses its utmost concern that the State Party did not report on the possible impacts of the Patuca III project despite repeated requests, and requests the State Party to ensure that current and potential impacts on the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the property are specifically assessed urgently, in line with IUCN’s World Heritage Advice Note on Environmental Assessment, and to ensure that the project will not proceed before this assessment is completed;
  9. Also requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 February 2019, 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;
  10. Decides to retain Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve (Honduras) on the List of World Heritage in Danger.

Decision Adopted: 42 COM 8C.2

The World Heritage Committee,

  1. Having examined the state of conservation reports of properties inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger (WHC/18/42.COM/7A, WHC/18/42.COM/7A.Add and WHC/18/42.COM/7A.Add.2),
  2. Decides to retain the following properties on the List of World Heritage in Danger: