Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve

• Financial resources
• Human resources
• Illegal activities (Illegal settlements, illegal livestock grazing and agricultural encroachment, drug trafficking, illegal logging, illegal commercial fishing, poaching and wildlife trade)
• Invasive/alien terrestrial species
• Land conversion (deforestation and forest degradation)
• Legal framework (Lawlessness and lack of law enforcement)
• Livestock farming/grazing of domesticated animals
• Management systems/management plan (Lack of clarity of the boundaries of the property, lack of clarity regarding land tenure and access to natural resources)
• Water infrastructure (Potential impacts from hydroelectric development projects Patuca I,II and III)
• Identity, social cohesion, changes in local population and community
• Overlap with important archaeological sites implying a need to harmonize management of cultural and natural heritage

• Illegal logging
• Illegal occupation
• Lack of clarity regarding land tenure
• Reduced capacity of the State Party
• General deterioration of law and order and the security situation in the region

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

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

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

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” 

On 4 February 2019, the State Party submitted a state of conservation report, available at http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/196/documents, supplemented on 14 February 2019 by information on a hydropower project.

The State Party responds to Decision 42 COM 7A.44, as follows:

• The Ad-Hoc Committee for the protection of the property, initially built upon Executive Decrees from 2011 and 2013, was re-activated to coordinate priority actions for the property and its surroundings. Two meetings in 2018 brought together the Confederation of Indigenous Peoples of Honduras, the Directorate of Indigenous People and Afro-Hondurans and numerous governmental institutions, including the Defense Forces and National Police;
• A presidential campaign branded “SOS Honduras: Stop the Destruction of Forests” was launched on 8 November 2018 with the objective to enhance financing, capacities and coordination between sectors, institutions, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and cooperation actors. Tangible objectives include checkpoints involving multiple agencies and the implementation of a national ranger programme;
• Supported by the German government, the longstanding cooperation with indigenous peoples and local communities continues to allocate rights to land and access to natural resources, and to promote so-called life plans (“planes de vida”), as an integral part of the governance and management of the property and its surroundings;
• Recognizing the conservation significance of the Honduran Mosquitia region, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Global Wildlife Conservation (GWC) and US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) support the State Party through technical capacity-building and equipment for field personnel;
• Overflights and ground level surveys to detect illegal activities were continued in 2018 and a cooperation agreement between the Instituto Nacional de Conservación y Desarrollo Forestal (ICF) and the Secretary of National Defense is under negotiation, aimed at strengthening monitoring and surveillance activities.

The State Party renewed its commitment to continue actions towards the removal of the property from the List of World Heritage in Danger and the elaboration of a Significant Boundary Modification (SMB). An updated Tentative List was submitted, as a necessary requirement towards the future nomination.

The Patuca III hydropower project is reported to be under construction and its potential environmental impacts on the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the property have not been evaluated in accordance with the IUCN World Heritage Advice Note on Environmental Assessment. However, the State Party expresses its commitment to comply with this Committee’s request and is seeking financial assistance through international cooperation to undertake the assessment, although no resources have been secured so far.

The continued efforts to grant rights to indigenous peoples and local, including Afro-Honduran, communities in and around the property, as well as the bi-lateral cooperation in support of innovative governance and management solutions are welcomed yet again. It is recommended that the Committee commend the support of international governmental and non-governmental conservation partners, such as the WCS, GWC, and USFWS, which strongly re-affirms the extraordinary conservation significance of the property. Further, the re-activation of the Ad-Hoc Committee accompanied by the Presidential Campaign SOS Honduras is noted as another positive step.

The State Party, however, does not elaborate on the effectiveness of coordination efforts and the systemic underfunding and understaffing, which have been hampering the management and protection of the property since 1996, when the property was first inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger. There is little evidence that the State Party’s response, since the second inscription on the List of World Heritage in Danger in 2011, is resulting in a turn-around of the worrying trends in this vast and remote property. Whilst acknowledging the results of earlier attempts to induce decisive change through the Ad-Hoc Committee, it will be critically important to sustain the political momentum of the Ad-Hoc Committee and the SOS Honduras Campaign and to support follow-up with adequate governmental resources, complemented by externally-funded projects.

While the activities, including those proposed in the framework of several international cooperation programmes, are welcomed, it is becoming clear that an alternative approach is required to make sufficient progress towards completing the corrective measures and achieving the Desired state of conservation for removal of the property from the List of World Heritage in Danger (DSOCR). Recalling that the Committee recommended the consideration of a Significant Boundary Modification (SBM) as a crucial step in this process and further to its general endorsement of this recommended approach, the State Party has since successfully updated its Tentative List by the inclusion of Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve. It is recommended that the Committee strongly encourage the State Party to initiate the proposal for a SBM in an adequately resourced participatory process, coordinating the many ongoing efforts, sectors, projects, governmental and non-governmental stakeholders, including indigenous peoples and local communities in and around the property. Given the simultaneous recognition as a Biosphere Reserve, it will be important to harmonize the process with the formal requirements under the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme.

In light of the Committee’s concerns about the Patuca III (Piedras Amarillas) hydropower project expressed in several decisions (including Decision 42 COM 7A.44), it is alarming that the project has advanced in its construction. While the readiness of the State Party to undertake an assessment of potential impacts of the project is noted, it is regrettable that no progress has been achieved to date in initializing the required assessment. It is recommended that the Committee reiterate its utmost concern and request immediate clarification of the current situation in terms of current and potential impacts on the OUV of the property.