Selous Game Reserve

• Significant decline of wildlife populations due to poaching
• Insufficient funding and interruption of the retention scheme
• Management challenges of trophy hunting
• Changes in legislation in 2009 permitting hydrocarbon and uranium prospecting and extraction inside game reserves
• Excision of land from the property to accommodate a uranium mine
• Operationalizing the uranium mining project and consideration of in situ leaching by the developer
• Lack of disaster preparedness and water monitoring related to the uranium mine
• Inadequate tourism management and development
• Decision to construct and subsequent construction of the Julius Nyerere Hydropower Project (JNHPP) and its associated infrastructure without adequate impact assessment
• Logging within the reservoir area
• Proposed Kidunda Dam development without adequate impact assessment
• Other potential infrastructure developmentsNeed for buffer zone
• Need for increased involvement of local communities
• Alien invasive species

2014: Poaching and the ensuing dramatic declines in elephant populations, and the effects thereof on the ecosystem. In 2018 the impacts of the proposed Stiegler’s Gorge hydropower dam (more recently referred to as the Julius Nyerere Hydropower Project (JNHPP)) were added to the justification for Danger Listing.

A draft DSOCR was developed but not finalized before the justification for Danger listing was amended to include the impacts of the JNHPP.

A draft action plan with corrective measures was developed but not submitted by the State Party before the justification for Danger listing was amended to include the impacts of the JNHPP.

Not yet identified

N/A

On 16 February 2022, the State Party submitted a progress report, and on 13 February 2023 an updated state of conservation report. An executive summary of each report is available at https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/199/documents. The reports can be summarized as follows:

• Renewed acknowledgement of the inscription on the List of World Heritage in Danger due to both the drastically declined elephant population and the Julius Nyerere Hydropower Project (JNHPP);
• Strong anti-poaching measures are in place, with an absence of any elephant carcasses found on the property since 2019. The elephant population has grown some 15% between 2014 and 2018; the most recent elephant survey was conducted in late 2022;
• JNHPP aims to meet “conservation and developmental needs” to the benefit of “the most underprivileged rural populace”. Ongoing construction considers “all the environmental safeguards” in the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA);
• Finalization of multiple studies and plans is expected by April 2023 focusing on fish migration; impacts on ecosystem services; hydrology and sedimentation; stakeholders’ engagement plan; baseline risk assessment; cost-benefit analysis; assessment and preparation of cultural heritage management plan, as well as a basin management plan;
• The reservoir area amounting to some 1.8% of the property is not of “any significant impact” and commitment to mitigation measures identified in the ESIA is renewed;
• The dormant Mkuju uranium mine, Kito 1 oil and gas exploration, and oil exploration outside the property would be subject to new ESIAs if reactivated;
• Renewed interest in the Kidunda dam outside of the property in 2021 triggered an updating of the ESIA dated 2017 (reported as being submitted with this report);
• The property is divided into a national park (62%) and a game reserve (38%), resulting in two areas with different management regimes and a need for a new property name;
• Bilateral cooperation continues with the Government of Germany, focusing on the property’s management;
• While the analysis of the wider Selous-Niassa ecosystem for possible World Heritage scenarios is not a priority, a separate transboundary World Heritage nomination of the Selous-Niassa Corridor is conceivable;
• The World Heritage Centre/IUCN Reactive Monitoring mission will be invited “soon after completion of logistical preparations”.

The aforementioned ESIA for the Kidunda dam was not appended to the State Party report. On 21 March 2023, the World Heritage Centre requested the ESIA to be submitted.

On 18 May 2023, a plane crash in the property resulted in the tragic death and injury of several individuals from the Tanzania National Parks Authority (TANAPA) and Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS).

On 9 June 2023, the State party submitted an updated Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) report for the JNHPP. Due to its very late submission, this SEA could not be reviewed before the finalization of this report.

It is recommended that the Committee express its sincere condolences following the tragic death and injury of the individuals engaged in the protection of the property.

It is regrettable that the State Party has provided very limited new information but repeats information and positions already transmitted in previous reports. New information includes that an elephant census was concluded in late 2022, and renewed interest in the Kidunda dam project. The statements regarding poaching and recovery of the elephant population by 15% between 2014 and 2018 are noted. However, this is not consistent with the wildlife census report referred to in the 2021 State of conservation report, where the Selous-Mikumi elephant population was found to be stable between 2014 and 2018. The recent census data would provide an important contribution to better understanding the current status of the elephant population and it is recommended the 2022 census report be submitted to the World Heritage Centre. Recalling previous Committee concerns regarding the potential impact of the Kidunda dam project on the property and a lack of appropriate impact assessment, it is regrettable that the revised ESIA (dated 2021) was not appended, nor subsequently provided at the World Heritage Centre’s request, and that no information on its results or the potential impact on the OUV were provided. While the State Party report emphasizes that the dam would be located outside the property, it is recalled that earlier State Party reports suggested the reservoir would overlap a portion of the property. It is therefore critical that no decision is taken that would be difficult to reverse prior to the submission of the revised ESIA to the World Heritage Centre for review by IUCN.

The commitment to undertake new ESIAs, should the currently dormant resource extraction projects be reactivated, is noted and all potential developments should be assessed in line with the new Guidance and Toolkit for Impact Assessments in a World Heritage Context.

The confirmation that the construction of the JNHPP, as a major dam with a large reservoir within the property, has continued (including the filling of the dam reservoir in December 2022), is of utmost concern in spite of repeated Committee concerns including the lack of appropriate impact assessment, potential impacts of the project on the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV), its position that dams with large reservoirs are incompatible with World Heritage status

While the State Party's commitment to environmental and social safeguards is noted, none are specified or discussed in the report. It is critical to recall that the ESIA on which the State Party explicitly bases these safeguards, was considered in an independent review commissioned by IUCN to fall “considerably short of acceptable standards” and failing to provide “a best practice assessment of the potential impacts on the property’s [OUV]” (Decision 43 COM 7A.16). Furthermore, in its 2020 State of conservation report, the State Party committed to “undertaking further revisions” of both the SEA and the ESIA of JNHPP in view of the results of the independent reviews of these commissioned by IUCN. On the occasion, the State Party also explicitly acknowledged the need to align its impact assessment with IUCN’s World Heritage Advice Note on Impact Assessment and committed to submitting revisions in the course of 2020. It is noted that a revised SEA was submitted by the State Party in June 2023, however this very late submission did not allow for review of this document before the preparation of the current report. Moreover, the value of this revised SEA at a time when construction is nearing completion is unclear. It is important to again reiterate that the State Party’s justification that the JNHPP reservoir footprint will affect only 1.8% of the 5.2 million hectare-property is not reflective of the degree of its impact on the OUV, as detailed in earlier reports.

It is recalled that in their report to the extended 44th session of the Committee in 2021, the World Heritage Centre and IUCN considered that, as a result of JNHPP, the OUV of the property had been irreversibly damaged as a result of the loss of values and integrity under Criterion (ix), and there continued to be significant threat to the remaining values under Criterion (x).

The Committee decided however, that there should be an on-the-ground verification of the status of the property through a joint World Heritage Centre/IUCN Reactive Monitoring mission. It is therefore of utmost concern that this mission, which was initially requested in 2018 (Decision 42 COM 7A.56), continues not to be invited by the State Party. The continued absence of a mission invitation results in the situation that a standard procedure of the Convention requested by the Committee has not been implemented, and impedes necessary meaningful dialogue with the State Party to inform the Committee in a timely manner, regarding the current status of the OUV of the property and the extent of loss of integrity and irreversible damage to the values which underpin the OUV as it was inscribed on the World Heritage List, and the options available to the State Party and the Committee to rectify this situation. In light of the absence of new information enabling an understanding of multiple acute challenges the long overdue Reactive Monitoring mission is ever more urgent to underpin future decision-making by the World Heritage Committee.