The Bureau noted that the Ministry for Environment and Forests (MOEF) of India, hosted a World Natural Heritage Site Managers' Meeting for South Asia, from 16 to 19 January 1997. The Director of Manas Wildlife Sanctuary presented a report on the state of conservation of Manas at that meeting. A staff member of the World Heritage Centre accompanied the Deputy Inspector General for Wildlife in India on a mission to Manas Wildlife Sanctuary from 20 to 23 January 1997. The mission concluded that:
(i) Militancy of the Bodo people in the early 1990s had damaged the infrastructure for the ...
Sites: Manas Wildlife Sanctuary
The Bureau recalled that a peace agreement, signed on 20 April 1995, had started a dialogue between the conflicting parties and set in motion the process for a return to a normal management regime and that the Committee at its twentieth session had noted that a detailed site evaluation and the development of an action programme for site recovery may become feasible in the near future. The IUCN/WWF project, with funding from DANIDA, for re-establishing a normal management regime for the site is soon to be resumed.
By letter of 20 March 1997, the Permanent Delegation of Niger has provided ...
The Bureau recalled that the Committee at its twentieth session noted that the construction of two dams had limited freshwater flow and devastated the wetland values of Ichkeul National Park, leading to dramatic increases in the salinity of the lake and marshes and sharp reductions in migratory bird populations. Hence, the Committee included Ichkeul in the List of World Heritage in Danger and requested the Tunisian authorities to provide a programme of corrective measures to reverse the degradation of the site, and alerted them to the possibility of the deletion of Ichkeul from the World ...
Sites: Ichkeul National Park
The Bureau recalled that the Committee at its twentieth session noted several remedial actions taken by the State Party to minimize potential and ascertained threats to this site, and commended the President of the country for his efforts to fully remove the potential mining threat to the integrity of the site with a mutually, to-be-agreed upon trade of land, valued at US$ 65 million. Since then, the Montana State Office of the Bureau of Land Management of the United States Department of the Interior, and the Northern Region Forest Service of the United States Department of Agriculture ...
Sites: Yellowstone National Park
The Bureau, while commending the efforts of the Royal Government of Cambodia and UNESCO, expressed deep concern over the looting and illegal excavation of cultural properties from Angkor, notably over the organized trade in antiquities, including the dismantling of monuments. The Bureau invited the Royal Government of Cambodia to submit a report to the twenty-first session of the Committee on administrative mechanisms and regulations put into place for the enforcement of the law on cultural heritage including measures adopted for the prevention of illicit traffic in cultural property. ...
Sites: Angkor
After having taken note of the report of the Secretariat concerning the situation at Fort Bahla, the Bureau thanked the Omani authorities for their communications of 12 and 24 March 1997 by which they confirmed their intent to carry out the recommendations of the UNESCO experts. However, it expressed its serious concern following the collapse of the Fort's north-west Tower and requested them to make every effort to consolidate the monument. It approved the dispatch of a new expert mission next October, on a cost-sharing basis, as previously.
Sites: Bahla Fort
Introducing its written report on the state of conservation of natural World Heritage properties, IUCN supplemented this with a verbal report on more recent developments in Australia. IUCN recalled previous discussions of the Bureau and the Committee on the future of forested public lands adjoining the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area and the response at that time by the State Party that World Heritage issues would be taken into account in the negotiation of a Regional Forest Agreement between the Governments of Australia and the State of Tasmania. The IUCN Representative said ...
The Bureau noted that an alarming situation has recently developed in this Park which required urgent attention. A local organization is campaigning for the reopening of an 18 km road which was closed in 1986 to strengthen protection of the site. In early May, 800 people invaded the Park and set up camp to begin unauthorized work to re-open the road. The responsible conservation authorities have been unable to resist political pressures associated with this development and have not acted to contain the damage.
The Bureau requested the Centre to urgently contact Brazilian authorities to ...
Sites: Iguaçu National Park
a) Okapi Faunal Reserve
The Bureau was deeply concerned to learn that the armed conflict which spread, during early 1997, to the whole of the region has led to the looting of all facilities and killing of several elephants in this site, inscribed on the World Heritage List in Mexico (December, 1996). Most of the expatriate and research staff have fled the Park and those remaining in the site receive only minimum salaries. There are reports of gold mining within the Park and the new Government's policy with regard to respecting the boundaries of the World Heritage area ...
The Bureau thanked IUCN, and the Observer of Ecuador for their reports. It noted that there was a major effort in Ecuador to take steps to conserve the World Heritage values of the islands.
The Bureau recalled that, at its twentieth session in Merida, the World Heritage Committee decided "to include the Galapagos National Park in the List of World Heritage in Danger, effective 15 November 1997, unless a substantive written reply by Ecuador is received by 1st of May 1997, and the Bureau, at its twenty first session determine that effective actions have been taken".
Having studied both ...
Sites: Galápagos Islands
The Bureau noted that a member of the Centre joined the Deputy Inspector General for Wildlife for India, during 24-25 January 1997, on a mission to Kaziranga National Park, in the State of Assam, India. The Bureau learnt with satisfaction Kaziranga's success in conserving the great one-horned rhinoceros, whose population within the Park has grown from 366 in 1966 to about 1,200 at present. However, every year about 26 rhinos are poached and an additional 52 die due to natural causes, most of them drowning in the annual floods of the Brahmaputra River.
The Bureau encouraged the management ...
Sites: Kaziranga National Park
The Bureau recalled the fact that the Committee had previously expressed concerns regarding the decrease in the population of wintering Siberian cranes returning to this site and management problems, such as the over-growth of grasses, forming a thick mat in some areas were adversely affecting the breeding habitat of the Siberian cranes. Records maintained by Park management indicated that the wintering population of Siberian cranes, estimated at about 38 in 1985-86 when the site was inscribed on the World Heritage List, had dropped to 5 in 1992-93; no Siberian cranes were seen in ...
Sites: Keoladeo National Park
The Bureau was informed that the Sundarbans National Park and World Heritage Area, comprising 1,330 sq.km., forms the core area of the larger Sundarbans Project Tiger Reserve (2,585 sq.km) and the even larger "Sundarbans Biosphere Reserve" which extends over more than 9,000 sq.km of the inter-tidal area of the Sundarbans delta. Although India has not yet formally nominated the Sundarbans Biosphere Reserve for inclusion in UNESCO's international network of biosphere reserves, the case illustrated an interesting application of the World Heritage and the Biosphere Reserve concepts of UNESCO ...
Sites: Sundarbans National Park
The Bureau was informed that this Park is located in a very remote area, and due to difficulty of access, remains well protected. There are no major threats to the Park; a certain amount of illegal collection of medicinal plants and herbs has been recorded. No visitors are allowed to the Park; some mountaineering groups have in recent times expressed an interest in organizing expeditions to the area. Allowing a certain amount of visitation may facilitate the presentation of this World Heritage Area to the general public and may generate income for the benefit of local people as well. ...
The Bureau recalled the fact that the boat provided to this World Heritage area with financial assistance from the Fund in 1994, was destroyed in an accident during a systematic monitoring mission to the site in July 1995, in which four Indonesian officials lost their lives. With a view to equipping the Park with a boat capable of undertaking open-sea travel, the Committee at its nineteenth session (Berlin, 1995) approved a sum of US$ 30,000 and requested that the State Party provide the additional US$ 30,000 needed to purchase a large fiberglass catamaran. Learning the fact that the ...
Sites: Komodo National Park
The Bureau was informed that the Centre's attention had been drawn by the International Foundation for Banc d’Arguin (FIBA) and WWF, to a Rally, “Trophée des Gazelles - Rallye des Sables”, that had traversed the area of the Park and to potential impacts which the Rally could have had on the fragile ecosystem within the Park. However, the Bureau noted that subsequently the Rally Organizers and FIBA have informed the Centre that the Rally did not traverse the World Heritage site and that there were no threats to the integrity of the site.
Sites: Banc d'Arguin National Park
The Bureau recalled that the Committee, at its twentieth session (Merida, 1996) reviewed a report on a project for industrial salt production at the site and its potential threats to the site's whale population and noted that the project had not yet been authorized and that a Scientific Committee to review the proposed project had been established by the Ministry of Environment.
The Bureau was informed that the seven member Scientific Committee has elaborated, through consultations with the public, rigorous and comprehensive terms of reference for its work and for the environmental ...
The Bureau noted with satisfaction that this site has a population of more than 400 great one-horned rhinoceros and its success is partly attributable to the cooperation between the Nepalese Army and the staff of the Royal Chitwan National Park in anti-poaching activities.
The Bureau was informed that 80% of the total population (i.e. about 2,000) of the great one-horned rhinoceros, a species restricted in its range to South Asia, are found in the World Heritage sites of Kaziranga (India; 1,200) and Royal Chitwan (Nepal; 400). The Bureau, however, noted that intensive poaching can ...
Sites: Chitwan National Park
The Bureau was informed that about 3500 people belonging to the Sherpa community live in and around the Park and play a significant role as guides for the visitors to the Park. Tourism however, is placing an ever increasing energy demand on the sparse woody vegetation left remaining in the area and also introduces considerable problems of waste disposal.
The Director of the Park had proposed that staff, army personnel and the Sherpa community resident in the vicinity of the Park shift to using kerosene as a primary source of energy but has been unable to raise the necessary capital, ...
Sites: Sagarmatha National Park
The Bureau recalled that the Committee, at its twentieth session (Merida, 1996) expressed its concerns regarding the poaching of thirteen Oryx, the damage to the desert habitat caused by construction of a reverse osmosis plant and delays in the completion of the management planning and boundary definition project. The Bureau was informed that the authorities in Oman have provided the Centre an outline of an interim plan which foresees the following:
(a) a new outer boundary which will be fixed and boundaries of the five management zones which will be provisionally accepted for 5 years to ...