Historic Centre of Macao

• Housing (Including high-rise buildings; Potential visual impact of new developments)
• Land conversion (Land reclamation)
• Management systems / Management Plan (Inadequacy of the current management systems; Lack of Management Plan)

N/A

On 30 November 2022, the State Party submitted a state of conservation report, which is available at https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1110/documents/. Progress with a number of conservation issues addressed by the Committee at its previous sessions is presented in this report as follows:

• The Master Plan of the Macao Special Administrative Region (2020-2040) was enacted in February 2022 following consultations, revised and integrated into the legal system;
• The draft administrative regulation, based on the Management Plan for the property, was received by the World Heritage Centre in November 2021, reviewed by ICOMOS, and is being amended. This regulation proposes stricter control measures for construction projects within the property buffer zones, through visual corridors and related building height restrictions;
• Following the launch of the new Guidance and Toolkit for Impact Assessments in a World Heritage Context, new projects that might cause potential impacts to the property will be subject to Heritage Impact Assessments (HIAs) will focus more on prevention of impacts on the overall ‘setting’, rather than focusing only on the property’s boundaries and buffer zones. The undertaking of HIAs is legislated through the Regulation of the Legal Regime for Urban Construction enacted in August 2022;
• The design of the unfinished building at 18-20 Calçada de Gaio was revised, following a Technical Review by ICOMOS and the subsequent decision by the World Heritage Committee, with changes to façade material, colour and transparency;
• New building projects on Avenida do Dr. Rodrigo Rodrigues were suspended and an urban study (‘Heritage Impact Assessment and Urban Design of the Area around Avenida do Dr. Rodrigo Rodrigues’) has commenced. This study will address compatible urban design concepts, HIA, urban design guidelines and specific projects, and will guide protection of the visual corridors to the Guia Lighthouse, consistent with the UNESCO Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape (2011);
• The planning study for the New Urban Zone Areas A and B has been completed, recognising that these areas are an extension of the ‘hill-sea-city’ viewsheds related to the property;
• Public consultation has occurred for the major transportation projects involving the New Urban Zones. The Light Rail Transit (LRT) East Line project connecting the New Urban Zone Areas A and E is in the detailed design phase. The construction of a bridge connecting the New Urban Zone Area A and the Macao Peninsula has commenced;
• In effort to integrate an early warning system in the management of the property, the China Academy of Cultural Heritage developed a ‘Plan for the Establishment of the Early Warning System for the Monitoring of the World Heritage of the Historic Centre of Macao’ along with specific monitoring indicators, and construction of the ‘Macao World Heritage Monitoring Centre’ has commenced.

On 10 May 2023, the World Heritage Centre sent a letter to the State Party to request information on resumed construction of the unfinished building at 18-20 Calçada de Gaio, following a receipt of third-party information. No response has been received at the time of drafting.

The Government of the Macao Special Administrative Region has been actively implementing Decision 44 COM 7B.141 and the recommendations of ICOMOS’ Technical Reviews. Enactment of the Master Plan of the Macao Special Administrative Region (2020-2040) is an important milestone, as will be the forthcoming ‘Administrative Regulation for the Protection and Management Plan of Historic Centre of Macao’ which, consistent with the technical advice of ICOMOS, should be revised to include sections on typhoon threat, HIAs, interpretation, tourism and visitor management/monitoring and sustainability, and should again be submitted to the World Heritage Centre, once amended. The State Party should be encouraged to accelerate efforts to bring this body of work to its final legal conclusion, through promulgation of the revised Administrative Regulation in tandem with the final Management Plan for the property.

The implementation of a process to assess the potential impacts of projects on the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the property through HIAs to be undertaken in accordance with the new legislation enacted in August 2022 and with the new Guidance and Toolkit for Impact Assessments in a World Heritage Context, and the inclusion of potential of impacts on the overall ‘setting’ of the property as well as its boundaries and buffer zones, will contribute to ensuring that new projects do not adversely affect the attributes which support and convey the OUV of the property.

The State Party has implemented previous advice about the unfinished building at 18-20 Calçada de Gaio, recognising that finishing the project to the existing built height and amending the remaining exterior walls to make the building less visually prominent would not fundamentally affect the OUV of the property. The suspension of new building projects on Avenida do Dr. Rodrigo Rodrigues, as requested in Decision 44 COM 7B.141, will avert potential additional threats to the setting of the property. The forthcoming study ‘Heritage Impact Assessment and Urban Design of the area around Avenida do Dr. Rodrigo Rodrigues’, which is to address the relevant principles of the UNESCO Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape (2011), is welcome, and a draft of this study should be submitted for review by the World Heritage Centre and the Advisory Bodies before it is finalised and implemented.

In view of the importance of the New Urban Zones as an extension of the ‘hill-sea-city’ viewsheds related to the property, it would be appropriate for key documents to be submitted to the World Heritage Centre for review by the Advisory Bodies, in conformity with Paragraph 172 of the Operational Guidelines, such as the planning study of the New Urban Zone Areas A and B and the proposed design of the LRT East Line project connecting the New Urban Zone Areas A and E. The Committee may also wish to request the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre up-to-date information about the ‘Plan for the Establishment of the Early Warning System for the Monitoring of the World Heritage of the Historic Centre of Macao’ and the ‘Macao World Heritage Monitoring Centre’, for review by the World Heritage Centre and the Advisory Bodies.