Vat Phou and Associated Ancient Settlements within the Champasak Cultural Landscape

• Ground transport infrastructure (New infrastructure construction, including new proposed roads)
• Housing (New constructions contributing to the haphazard densification of the main monumental complex)
• Management systems/Management Plan (Lack of a coordinated management mechanism)
• Impacts of tourism/visitors/recreation
• Interpretative and Visitation facilities (Parking lot and visitor centre)
• Human resources (Lack of sufficient professional staff)
• Water infrastructure related to water supply

Total amount provided to the property: Japanese-funded project: USD 379,040 (1996-97), Total Italian-funded projects through Lerici Foundation: USD 482,194 (1996-2004; 3 project phases): Phase I (1996-1997) = USD 161,124; Phase II (1998-1999) = USD 164,000; Phase III (2003-2005) = USD 157,070

On 30 November 2018, the State Party submitted a report on the state of conservation of the property, which is available at https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/481/documents and provides information on the implementation of Committee Decision (41 COM 7B. 94):

• The Champasak Heritage Management Plan (No2692/PMO) has been continuously in use since 1998, now in conjunction with the updated Action Plan (2019-2023) and the 2016 Champasak Cultural Landscape Master Plan. The State Party has enforced urban control regulations accompanying the latter plan, namely the Building Code and the Land Use Plan;
• Concerning progress made with the implementation of the road network and traffic management scheme, the State Party confirms that an administrative order had been prepared to restrict and manage traffic flow along Route 14A, which will be put into use once both the bypass Route 14B and Route 14A are completed. Funding is still being secured to complete both routes;
• Effectiveness of inter-agency coordination and cooperation is ensured by national level regular meetings, and Annual International Coordination Meetings (ICM), which have taken place since 2013 with international and national partners and universities. Per the decision of the 5th ICM, the State Party established the Expert Advisory Group (EAG), in line with recommendations of the Committee and the 2015 mission, to generate closer coordination among international teams. The EAG has issued recommendations, selected specific sites for conservation improvement; recommended the enhancement of the property’s overall conservation/management; and decided to improve the working process related to national and international projects, including requesting project teams to submit detailed project proposals, documentation and reports to allow the heritage authorities to more effectively monitor conservation work;
• Two water supply projects have been proposed within the property to urgently address the local needs: (1) The Champasak Water Supply State Enterprise extending the existing water supply into Champasak town from the southern perimeter of the property at Dontalat is already underway. The project proposal is included as Annex 7 of the State Party report but is only provided in Lao, with a short English cover page. No Heritage Impact Assessment (HIA) or detailed drawings have been provided to the World Heritage Centre. (2) The feasibility study and HIA for the Champasak Water Supply Project (WSP) have been submitted as Annex 8 of the State Party report, but this project awaits funding;
• A feasibility study concerning Solid Waste Management was submitted to the World Heritage Centre as Annex 9 of the report.

Instead of updating the Management Plan, the State Party has renewed the plan’s associated 5-year Action Plan, which covers the upcoming period 2019-2023 and is attached as Annex 1 to the report. This document reflects the structure of the Management Plan, covers management and conservation priorities for the property, as well as institutional and capacity building, and is aimed at guiding actions conducted by all stakeholders. Although this practical document is useful to share the technical actions and objectives with all concerned, a comprehensive updated Management Plan using a more mission/challeng oriented approach would be useful, given the wide societal changes that the property has undergone since the establishment of the previous Management Plan in 1998. 

Through implementing the Champasak Landscape Master Plan, the State Party has also enforced the accompanying Land Use Plan. This includes awareness raising actions among residents of the villages on the new urban control regulations. These provide for finer rules on different land uses with additional detailed requirements, such as buffer areas around every known archaeological remnants. It prohibits the encroachment of new construction in irrigated rice fields and in ecological nature reserves, with enhanced control of illegal construction activities. Specifically, the Land Use Plan absolutely prohibits urban expansion within the 20 square kilometres of Zone 1 (cultural landscape zone) and Zone 3 (archaeological research zone). It does not permit new urban extension areas and only allows limited urban expansion within the existing villages (in an area of 31 square kilometres).

Also, the map on the World Heritage Centre website does not comply with the requirements of the Operational Guidelines. The Committee may wish to request the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre by 1 December 2019, an up-to-date topographic map of the property as inscribed in 2001, for its subsequent examination by the Committee.

Concerning the road network and management scheme, the confirmation of the suspension of further works on Route 14A from km29 to km34 is welcome, as is the reported prohibition of any construction along this section, except for some light weight structures in rice fields.  A pre-feasibility study for the upgrade of Route 14B, which shows that the upgrade of this road for heavy vehicles bypass is economically viable as a regional transport connection, is also welcome.

The mechanism of ICMs and the EAG is valuable in providing an inclusive platform to study and address all cooperation initiatives regarding the property, and its recommendations should be closely followed up, especially as the State Party reports that important cooperation projects start in 2019 through initiatives led by France, India and the Republic of Korea. Given the importance to ensure the ownership and capacity-building of the State Party’s human resources, it is desirable that all international and national projects are duly reviewed and studied by the ICM and EAG. It is also desirable that the participation of Lao heritage experts is formalised throughout implementation of such projects, reporting to the ICM.

The Champasak Water Supply State Enterprise system extension project has the possibility to disturb both the sub-surface archaeological remains as well as the integrity of landscape and should be immediately halted until a detailed technical proposal, HIA, mitigation measures and updated progress report have been submitted to the World Heritage Centre, in one of the working languages of the Convention, for review by the Advisory Bodies.

ICOMOS has assessed the remaining two construction projects via a Technical Review.