Stone Town of Zanzibar

• Management system/management plan
• Major visitor accommodation and associated infrastructure
• Development and environmental pressures, particularly in relation with Malindi port project (issue resolved)
• Natural disasters and lack of risk-preparedness
• Visitors/tourist pressures
• Housing pressure
• Lack of human and financial resources
• Lack of legal framework
• Commercial development (large shopping mall) particularly in relation to the Darajani Corridor project

Total amount provided to the property: 2009: USD 24,000 for the inventory of the public spaces in Zanzibar; 2011: USD 14,000 for capacity-building in managing digital inventory; 2013: 49,935 USD for participatory mapping of HUL (Netherlands Funds-in-Trust). 2010-2013; USD 400,000 for Zanzibar and two other African sites under the World Heritage Cities Programme (Flemish Funds-in-Trust)

On 1 December 2017, the State Party submitted a state of conservation report, which responded to the previous Committee Decision. A joint World Heritage Centre/ICOMOS Advisory mission was invited to visit the property in October 2017 to consider the proposed Darajani Corridor Business Centre, restoration of the Chawl building, Beit-el-Ajaib (House of Wonders), the Majestic Cinema, the Bwawani Hotel complex, and the Palace Museum. Both reports are available at http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/173/documents/.

In response to the mission report, the State Party submitted a commentary in February 2018, containing:

• Progress in addressing ‘Specific Recommendations for Procedures to Adequately Control Development and Promote Conservation’ developed by the 2016 Reactive Monitoring mission; some progress regarding the mitigation measures at the Mambo Msiige;
• An analysis of the building stock shows that between 1990 and 2017, 39 buildings out of a total of 2,000 in Stone Town collapsed or were demolished, 55% through lack of maintenance and 26% through intentional destruction;
• Classification undertaken by the Stone Town Conservation and Development Authority (STCDA) in collaboration with the Zanzibar Housing Corporation (ZHC) of 300 urban buildings owned by ZHC in order to prioritize their conservation; out of 300 buildings, 27 are in poor/dilapidated condition and need immediate attention;
• The Mizingani Sea Wall project has been completed; progress is being made in addressing the restoration of a number of Grade I buildings, including Palace Museum and Chawl Building; the Tippu Tip House and the Caravanserai. Regarding, Beit el Ajaib (House of Wonders), the State Party is following UNESCO’s recommendations, and the rehabilitation project funded by the Sultanate of Oman is under preparation;
• The Development Control Unit (DCU) is operational. It has had its financial resources augmented, and is staffed with experts. The STCDA has been strengthened with more staff and training. A skills training restoration programme has been executed (funded by the European Union). A Conservation Management Plan is under development and will be implemented by 2019;
• Preliminary work has begun to relocate the container port outside Stone Town to Mpiga Duri.

Although the management of the property has been strengthened through the establishment of the Development Control Unit (DCU) with its supporting legal framework, the Advisory mission reported that the management system is not functioning adequately and that the Heritage Board is not operational. Ways of managing the large number of “players” involved in the management and conservation of the Stone Town have not been successfully addressed in the 17 years since the property was inscribed.

The Advisory mission came to a similar conclusion regarding the state of conservation of the property. Although the mission commended the Department of Urban and Rural Planning  (DoURP) Ng’ambo Local Area Plan and Green Belt proposals, and the restoration of the Chawl Building, and supported the proposed Hifadhi Zanzibar Majestic Theatre, it noted that minimum mitigation measures for the Mambo Msiige project, identified by the 2016 mission as non-negotiable minimum, have not all been implemented, while the Tippu Tip House is highly vulnerable and the Palace Museum in danger of partial collapse unless urgent measures are taken.  It should be noted that the State Party has followed the ICOMOS recommendations regarding Beit el Ajaib (House of Wonders) and that the World Heritage Centre should be kept informed of all developments regarding the rehabilitation project.

These few important individual buildings are the tip of the iceberg; the overall state of conservation of the general building stock remains equally vulnerable. The categorization of some 300 buildings owned by the ZHC is a welcome start, but an overall detailed inventory of the building stock that could allow monitoring of the distinctive urban fabric that characterizes the Stone Town and strategic conservation approaches are still lacking.

Also of concern to the Advisory mission was the lack of effective control of development proposals. The mission advised that the Bwawani project (for hotel, conference centre and yacht harbour), which involves land reclamation of the Funguni Creek Lagoon, and high-rise buildings, be halted in view of the highly negative and irreversible potential impact on the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV). Further, it recommended that the Darajani Business Centre project be halted and a new project developed in line with the principles of the DoURP Ng’ambo Local Area Plan and Green Belt proposals, and that no decision should be made on projects for the Malindi Container Terminal and Tippu Tip House that also have potentially impacts on the OUV without consultation with the World Heritage Centre and the Advisory Bodies. With regard to the now-completed Mizingani Sea Wall project, the final plans requested by the Committee in 2010, 2011 and again in 2016 have not been submitted for review. Moreover, many recommendations of the two previous missions remain unaddressed.

The overall weaknesses highlighted by the Advisory mission reflect the concerns expressed by the Committee in 2016 when it urged the State Party to define and implement corrective measures. It is recommended that the Committee express concern that the weaknesses identified then still persist.

In order to address these strategic weaknesses and the diverse and complex issues facing the property, there is a need for extraordinary measures to be taken supported at a high level in order to ameliorate a situation that is putting the property at risk. The mission recommended a high-level cross-cutting Task Team be established for a defined period that would have the authority to act and address all outstanding Committee decisions and mission recommendations for implementation. It is recommended that the Committee support this proposal in the light of the fact that the condition of the property could, as in 2015, warrant consideration for inscription of the property on the List of World Heritage in Danger, under paragraphs 178 and 179 of the Operational Guidelines.