Coiba National Park and its Special Zone of Marine Protection

• Livestock farming / grazing of domesticated animals
• Management systems/ management plan (delayed implementation of the Management Plan)
• Marine transport infrastructure (planned construction of a naval base)
• Legal framework (absence of clear regulations)
• Fishing/collecting aquatic resources
• Human resources (insufficient management capacity)
• Impacts of tourism / visitors / recreation

Total amount granted: USD 350,000 (for management planning, installation of mooring buoys for diving boats, working with local communities, capacity building, public use planning and improved stakeholder understanding of legal protection measures)

On 25 November 2022, the State Party submitted a report on the state of conservation of the property, available at https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1138/documents/, providing the following information:

• The updating of the Management Plan for Coiba National Park and the development of a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) for the property and its wider area of socioeconomic influence is ongoing;
• There are no plans to reactivate the rehabilitation of the airport runway in Coiba National Park. However, this work will be taken into consideration in the application of the SEA once it is available;
• The rehabilitation of the Administrative Headquarters at Gambute on Coiba Island is urgently required and a Heritage Impact Study is being considered. The World Heritage Committee is requested to allow this rehabilitation pending the finalization of the SEA. Several other rehabilitation works are also planned or carried out for the benefit of the property including installation of six buoys for mooring and diving, rehabilitation of trails, and the shoring up of the penal chapel;
• Monitoring activities following the eradication of livestock in Coiba National Park are being carried out with the support of camera traps, and the presence of four buffalos was detected. The conservation status of several other key species within the property, including the scarlet macaw, hawksbill turtle, sharks and rays, and coral reef communities is also being monitored;
• The fisheries regulations in place prohibit various unsustainable fishing practices, including the use of nets of any kind, within the Special Zone of Marine Protection (SZMP), which is made up of three components with different management objectives (Resource Management Zone, Hannibal Bank Habitat Protection Zone, and Isla Montuosa Marine Reserve Zone). A technical report to evaluate compliance and effectiveness of the regulations was requested by the SZMP Commission in 2022, and will be submitted to UNESCO for consideration when available;
• The monitoring system enforced within the SZMP has enabled the collection of data on fishing vessels and their compliance with international regulations and established national laws, the detection and removal of abandoned fishing lines and plastic fuel containers, and the rescue of a green turtle. Additional modern tech-based surveillance and monitoring equipment such as Skylight or Global Fishing Watch is being acquired with the support of partners;
• The conditions are not yet met for the IUCN Advisory mission to the property as the State Party is still recovering from the economic damages caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Once conditions permit, this activity will be resumed.

The ongoing updating of the Management Plan for Coiba National Park is welcomed and the development of an SEA for the property and its area of socioeconomic influence is noted.

It is noted that urgent repairs are required to the Administrative Headquarters at Gambute to facilitate the effective management of the property. However, the proposed rehabilitation includes upgrades of existing tourism accommodation for about 30 people, and a camping area. Recalling the Committee’s request to suspend the implementation of any new tourism infrastructure or other development projects until the SEA has been completed, any rehabilitation work at Gambute carried out prior to the SEA should be strictly limited only to structures that are necessary for the functioning management of the property and which should be subject to Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) in line with the new Guidance and Toolkit for Impact Assessments in a World Heritage Context.

The efforts to monitor the trend of invasive alien species (IAS) and the conservation status of species that contribute to the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the property are appreciated, however it is of concern that water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) are still recorded. The State Party should be encouraged to complete the eradication of feral livestock from the property. Current efforts to monitor flagship species should be continued and expanded to other taxa that constitute the OUV of the property. These data are also important to evaluate the fishing regulations.

The significant progress towards establishing identical fishing regulations for the SZMP and the Coiba National Park, including the prohibition of nets and commercialization of the species caught in sport fishing, should be noted with appreciation. Progress has also been made in the surveillance and monitoring of the compliance of fishing vessels with regulations through increased human and technological resources as well as infrastructure improvements. However, several of the 10 recommendations from the 2016 Reactive Monitoring mission have still not been implemented, and the concern remains that regulations in the SZMP are significantly weaker than those in place within Coiba National Park. These weaker regulations fail to guarantee the protection of the OUV of the entire property. It is therefore recommended that the Committee urge again the State Party to further improve the fishing regulations for the SZMP, in line with the recommendations of the 2014 and 2016 missions, in particular the seasonal closures of critical replenishing zones across the property. The technical report to evaluate the fishing logs for commercial fishermen and fisheries management in the area, commissioned in 2022, should inform the implementation of the recommendations in strengthening fisheries regulations. The State Party should also be encouraged to continue improving its monitoring and surveillance capacity in order to prevent and sanction illegal activities throughout the property.

The continued interest to invite an IUCN Advisory mission, first proposed by the State Party in 2019, is noted. It is recommended that this mission take place as soon as possible to help further refine the fishing regulations and provide advice on their implementation on the property.

In November 2021, during the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), the presidents of Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Panama signed a declaration to the sustainable management of the Eastern Tropical Pacific Marine Corridor (CMAR) and started a regional process that could result in the establishment of the world's largest transboundary marine biosphere reserve encompassing four World Heritage sites: Cocos Island National Park (Costa Rica), Galápagos Islands (Ecuador), Malpelo Fauna and Flora Sanctuary (Colombia) and the Coiba National Park and its Special Zone of Marine Protection (Panama). This corridor covers more than 500,000 hectares (ha) and is an important migratory route for sea turtles, whales, sharks, and manta rays. It is recommended that the Committee welcome this development and encourage the States Parties to further pursue this initiative.