Selous Game Reserve

• Significant decline of wildlife populations due to poaching
• Insufficient funding and management
• Modification of legal protective status to permit mineral and hydrocarbon prospecting and mining inside the property
• Excision of land from the property to accommodate a uranium mine
• Operationalizing the uranium mining project
• Inadequate tourism management and development
• Proposed dam development without adequate impact assessment
• Tendering of logging rights for the proposed dam
• Lack of disaster preparedness
• Need for buffer zone
• Need for increased involvement of local communities
• Alien invasive species

Poaching and the ensuing dramatic declines in elephant populations, and the effects thereof on the ecosystem; tendering of logging rights for large-scale deforestation resulting from the proposed hydropower dam

In progress

In progress

On 28 February 2019, the State Party submitted a report on the state of conservation of the property, available at http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/199/documents/, with the following information:

• Progress report of the Emergency Action Plan (EAP) is submitted. Intensified patrolling has led to a significant reduction of poaching, with only 5 elephant carcasses found in the property in 2017/18;
• A new General Management Plan (GMP) will be developed following the approval of the new 5 year Strategic Plan for the Tanzanian Wildlife Management Authority (TAWA);
• The results of the October 2018 aerial wildlife census are not yet available, but will be used to establish the baseline for the Desired state of conservation for the removal of the property from the List of World Heritage in Danger (DSOCR). The elephant demographic survey was also conducted;
• Two rhino protection and monitoring units have been established. One rhino was reported in October 2018;
• The Mkuju River uranium mining project is deferred until further notice but a full Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) will be conducted in case In Situ Leaching technology is used. Discussions are underway to add an area in the Mbarika Mountains to compensate for the area excluded by the 2012 boundary modification;
• The updated hydrology report for the Kidunda Dam (dated December 2017) was submitted. A revised EIA is available but not yet submitted;
• The action plan to protect the Selous-Niassa corridor is still not approved but some actions to protect this important wildlife corridor are underway;
• The EIA for the Rufiji Hydropower project (RHPP), including an Environmental Management Plan with mitigation measures, was approved, and the project is scheduled to proceed. The project was re-designed and the reservoir will now cover 91,400 ha, an area which will be logged;
• The State Party acknowledges that under Tanzanian Law a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is required for hydropower projects, but notes that “the resources and time required for an SEA were found to mismatch the pace that RHPP is being implemented”. An SEA is currently being prepared to assess the cumulative impacts of RHPP on the property and its landscape;
• The State Party proposed to postpone the Reactive Monitoring mission requested by the Committee in its Decision 42 COM 7A.56 pending logistical arrangements and collection of all necessary information.

On 31 October 2018, the World Heritage Centre sent a letter to the State Party of Egypt, in response to reports that the RHPP will be constructed in cooperation with two Egyptian companies. No response was received. Therefore, on 19 December 2018, the Director of the World Heritage Centre met with the Ambassador of Egypt to UNESCO to express serious concern about the State Party of Egypt’s support to the project, recalling Article 6.3 of the Convention. A statement was released in response to frequent media inquiries (http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/1920).

In November 2018, the World Heritage Centre sent a letter to the State Party in response to reports indicating that the infrastructure works related to RHPP had started. No response was received, however in January 2019 the Director of the World Heritage Centre met with the Ambassador of the United Republic of Tanzania to UNESCO to reiterate UNESCO’s grave concern over the reported start of the RHPP.

In March 2019, the State Party submitted an EIA (dated May 2016) for the Kito-1 oil and gas exploration project proposed in the Kilombero Valley Ramsar site adjacent to the property. The studies on the hydrological regime of the Kilombero floodplain and a specific assessment of potential downstream impacts on the property’s Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) are underway.

In July 2018, the World Heritage Centre and IUCN commented on the first draft EIA for RHPP. Following receipt of the revised version in December 2018, IUCN commissioned an independent technical review of the EIA (available at https://portals.iucn.org/library/node/48425), was sent to the State Party on 18 April 2019. Both assessments concluded that the EIA falls considerably short of acceptable standards.

On 21 May 2019, the State Party submitted the SEA for RHPP.

The reported reduction in poaching is noted and it is hoped that this will be confirmed by the 2018 aerial census results, once available. The State Party’s efforts to implement the EAP are commendable, however, such actions to secure the values of the property are at odds with decisions to proceed with the large scale RHPP and its consequent catastrophic impacts as noted below. While acknowledging the results of the demographic study, it should be followed by a population model to estimate the recovery of the elephant population, assuming poaching has been reduced drastically. It is of utmost concern that the signs of remaining rhino were reported in the area to be logged and inundated for the RHPP.

It is of utmost concern that the development of the RHPP is going ahead against the Committee’s repeated requests not to take a decision or start works prior to the completion of a comprehensive SEA undertaken to the highest international standards, review of the SEA by IUCN and considering alternatives. The Committee has an unequivocal position that the construction of dams with large reservoirs within the boundaries of World Heritage properties is incompatible with World Heritage status (Decision 40 COM 7). Furthermore, this contradicts the State Party’s earlier commitments to not undertake any development activities without the Committee’s prior approval (Decision 36 COM 8B.43). The RHPP will involve the construction of a 130 m-high dam on the Rufiji River, the creation of a 100 km-long reservoir of 914 km², a power plant, transmission lines, workers camp and access roads inside the property. Due to late submission of the SEA, its review was not possible at the time of writing this report. However, it is critical to note that the State Party has affirmed that the project is going ahead, effectively making the SEA meaningless. Recalling Article 6.3 of the Convention, it is also very regrettable that the State Party of Egypt is supporting this project.

The independent review of the RHPP EIA concludes that it does not meet acceptable standards, that it does not provide a credible assessment of the potential impacts on the property’s OUV, and that its conclusions are untenable based on evidence provided. In addition to the EIA review, various international experts and studies have questioned the economic viability of the RHPP and have pointed to other cost-effective and sustainable alternatives for Tanzania to achieve its legitimate energy objectives.

It is of significant concern that the logging within the future reservoir area has started. Contrary to the Committee’s request to the State Party to refrain from any logging (42 COM 7A.56), satellite images between January and March 2019 reveal that at least 2,500 ha of forest have already been cleared. At its 42nd session, the Committee had noted that the planned large-scale deforestation represents a clear potential danger to the property and decided to add this issue to the justification for the continued inclusion of the property on the List of World Heritage in Danger. Deforestation of almost 1,000 km² within the property is likely to lead to irreversible damage to its OUV and would hence fulfill the conditions for deleting the property from the World Heritage List, in accordance with Paragraph 192 of the Operational Guidelines, especially when combined with the other stressors resulting from RHPP.

Under these conditions, it is of significant concern that the State Party postponed the requested Reactive Monitoring mission to the property. It is therefore recommended that the Committee urge again the State Party to immediately halt all logging operations and to invite the joint World Heritage Centre/IUCN Reactive Monitoring mission without further delay to verify the extent of the damage and assess the state of conservation of the property, with a view to reviewing whether the conditions of deleting the property from the World Heritage List are met. Given the risk of losing the property’s OUV, it is recommended that the Committee decide to apply the Reinforced Monitoring Mechanism to this property.

As requested by the Committee, the revised EIA for Kidunda Dam should be made available to review the impacts and mitigation measures with respect to the OUV. It is noted that the 2016 EIA for the Kito-1 oil and gas exploration project will be augmented with a study on the hydrological regime of the Kilombero floodplain and a specific assessment of potential downstream impacts on the OUV of the property, as requested by the Committee (42 COM 7A.56).