Town of Luang Prabang

• Lack of enforcement of the Luang Prabang Conservation Plan (PSMV) and illegal constructions
• Public works (proposed new town, airport extension, pedestrian bridge) which may affect the Outstanding Universal Value

Total amount provided to the property: USD 200,000 (France / UNESCO Cooperation Agreement).

In 2014, the Committee observed that its main concerns were being addressed and encouraged the State Party to apply the Luang Prabang Conservation Plan (PSMV) in controlling the development pressure in the property and the buffer zone to prevent any threats to its Outstanding Universal Value (OUV). The operationalization of the Heritage Fund was expected to sustain the conservation efforts. Since then, the state of conservation of the property has remained subject to technical assessments and monitoring, notably through a bilateral cooperation mechanism with France. Technical missions and third parties raised issues relating to the Heritage Fund, the disappearance of traditional buildings, new constructions within the property, its buffer zones and wider setting and the protection of the banks of Nam Khan River.

In response to a request from the World Heritage Centre, the State Party provided a state of conservation report on 13 March 2020, which is available at https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/479/documents and indicates the following:

• The PSMV has been upgraded into the World Heritage Preservation Programme and integrated in the Provincial Strategic Plan, aiming at preserving built and environmental values;
• The Luang Prabang World Heritage Office (LPWHO) has been implementing the PSMV and regulations in the buffer zones, notably for the restoration, extension and construction of buildings;
• A Heritage Fund was established in 2009 to collect resources from tourist sites and entrepreneurs and operated during two consecutive years. In 2014, a Prime Minister’s Decree instituted a ‘National Heritage Funds’, which has some overlap with the previously established Funds. Both need to be revised. The State Party intends to apply an ad hoc measure for the Town of Luang Prabang to ensure the availability of the necessary resources;
• The LPWHO has taken the initiative to expand the Provincial Strategic Plan by creating an Infrastructure Development Plan and suggests 32 detailed plans;
• On 11 March 2020, the World Heritage Centre requested clarifications concerning the reported Luang Prabang hydropower project (LPHPP), situated 25 km upstream from the property. On 30 April 2020, the State Party provided information on the context of the intervention for the protection of the riverbank, which is supported by the World Bank and the ASEAN’s ‘Smart City’ project. It also mentioned the hydropower project, which was submitted to the Mekong River Commission (MRC) for consultation with the States Parties of Thailand, Viet Nam and Cambodia, and is coordinated at the level of the central government. The MRC issued two technical evaluations in December 2019 and June 2020, indicating that the LPHPP is classified as an Extreme Risk Dam according to the Lao Electric Power Technical Standards (LEPTS) of 2018 and must meet stringent flood safety standards. The exchange of information is ongoing at the time of preparation of this working document;
• In conformity with Article 6 of the Convention, a consultation meeting was held on 16 September 2020 between the Director of the World Heritage Centre and the States Parties of Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Viet Nam, with the participation of ICOMOS experts; .   
• In March and April 2021, the State Party submitted technical documents to the World Heritage Centre, including a design brief, to show that this is a run-of-the- river dam, and to demonstrate the high technical standards that are to be applied to the construction, and indicating their will to work in close consultation with UNESCO and the Advisory Bodies. The Lao International Cooperation Unit also conducted an online meeting to discuss progress on the Heritage Impact Assessment (HIA) and risk assessment in relation to the World Heritage property. The meeting was attended by representatives of the State Party and its LPHPP developers, the World Heritage Centre, the UNESCO Office in Bangkok and ICOMOS;
• Meanwhile, the State Party submitted a request for the International Assistance under the World Heritage Fund for the project to “Support for Heritage Impact Assessment to protect World Heritage in Lao PDR”. In March 2021, the Chairperson of the World Heritage Committee approved an amount of USD  30,000 under the Conservation & Management category to enable the State Party to conduct a specific Heritage Impact Assessment (HIA) with rigorous risk analysis and the impact on the OUV of Luang Prabang. The project is being implemented collaboratively by the national authorities, World Heritage Centre and the UNESCO Office in Bangkok.

The property is a well-known tourism destination in South-East Asia and has attracted increasing visitation. In its report, the State Party reaffirms its commitment to implementing the PSMV and integrating it into the provincial policy, applying its regulations to any modification of the townscape through restoration or development. However, the State Party’s report does not demonstrate concrete, implemented policies or modalities to ensure the safeguarding of traditional town fabrics, including traditional houses and other features. There is no detail about the World Heritage Preservation programme and infrastructure development plan, its purpose, rationale, scale or scope.

Importantly, there is no indication concerning the planning of tourism control, although this issue has been a long-lasting concern for the safeguarding of the property. The PSMV should be updated with a solid Tourism Management Plan, based on a carrying capacity study and necessary prospects assessment, which need to feed the decision-making process in terms of the number of tourism facilities, the conservation of the townscape and other values. A coherent and sustained mechanism of financial allocations is vital to ensure not only the functioning of LPWHO, but also the researching, planning and implementation of the policies for heritage preservation and tourism management in a balanced way.

The reported construction of the LPHPP has been through a process of consultation via the MRC, for which the State Party has implemented several studies but no specific assessment of the risks or impacts that such a project could represent for the attributes of OUV of the property. The MRC’s technical reviews of the project, carried out in December 2019 and June 2020, clearly highlight concerns about its possible impacts in terms of heritage preservation, environment, and socioeconomic contexts, including seismic risks and damage by flood in case of a dam break. The LPHPP Feasibility Study (Volume 4), published in May 2019, contains an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) that covers management issues such as the resettlement of affected villagers and ethnic minority development planning. The documents submitted in March and April 2021, finalised by the project developers and approved by the Lao authorities, argue that because this is a run-of-the-river hydropower facility, there is no direct threat to the World Heritage property and its buffer zone.

Considering that Decision 40 COM 7 “urges States Parties to ensure that the impacts from dams that could affect properties located upstream or downstream within the same river basin are rigorously assessed in order to avoid impacts on the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV)”, and bearing in mind the provisions of Paragraph 118bis of the Operational Guidelines concerning the needs for HIA to be carried out as a pre-requisite for development projects and other activities that are planned within or around a World Heritage property, it is noted that the submitted technical studies and analysis did not contain specific analysis of expected changes in cultural and natural environment, nor a specific section focusing on the potential impacts of the project on the OUV of the property, nor any mitigation measures against potential impacts. The State Party, using the support of the International Assistance project from the World Heritage Fund, has committed to undertaking a full HIA of the potential impacts of the project on the property and its OUV, and to identify whether mitigation measures might be warranted, and if so, how they would be implemented. The HIA should also identify and mitigate potential negative impacts, including those of natural flooding of the Mekong, and should take into account the findings of the ESIA undertaken for the State Party in 2019. This HIA should be submitted to the World Heritage Centre for review by the Advisory Bodies, and its conclusions should guide the planning and implementation of the project, as appropriate. An Emergency Preparedness Plan (EPP), also recommended by the MRC, should also be prepared and include reinforced measures to prevent any major threats to the property.

It is also recommended that the Committee request the State Party to invite a joint World Heritage Centre/ICOMOS Reactive Monitoring mission to the property to assess its overall state of conservation and the implementation of heritage preservation policies and related regulations, to undertake an assessment of all the proposed projects and to make recommendations on how development projects could support the OUV of the property.