The World Heritage Committee,
1. Having examined Document WHC-08/32.COM/7B.Add,
2. Recalling Decision 31 COM 8B.38, adopted at its 31st session (Christchurch, 2007),
3. Reminds States Parties that, according to the Convention, they have an obligation, to protect and conserve world cultural and natural heritage, situated on their territory, and in particular to ensure that effective and active measures are taken for the protection and conservation of this heritage;
4. Strongly regrets the destruction of the Pertuis Bridge by the State Party, without prior consultation or impact study, contravening Paragraph 172 of the Operational Guidelines, and affecting the property, only a few months following its inscription on the World Heritage List;
5. Considers that the information concerning the project of the drawbridge over the Garonne provided to the World Heritage Centre is incomplete and that such a drawbridge would constitute, by its size and cost, an inadequate solution that would have a significant impact on the Outstanding Universal Value and integrity of the property and that would be very difficult to reverse;
6. Requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre for transmission to the Advisory Bodies, the environmental and cultural impact assessment studies on this bridge project, as well as on the other possible solutions to crossing the river, in order to be able to compare these different solutions, and that no construction work be undertaken until the afore mentioned studies have been provided for examination;
7. Strongly urges the State Party to consider requesting inscription of Bordeaux, Port of the Moon (France) on the List of the World Heritage in Danger;
8. Decides to apply the Reinforced Monitoring mechanism to the property and asks in particular that the Committee be informed of the results of the Reactive Monitoring mission and of any information relevant for the conservation of the Outstanding Universal Value of the property;
9. Further requests the State Party to invite a joint World Heritage Centre / ICOMOS Reactive Monitoring mission to evaluate to what degree the Outstanding Universal Value of the property was compromised due to the destruction of the Pertuis Swing Bridge, and the impact of the drawbridge project on the Outstanding Universal Value and visual integrity of the property, and to submit a report on this issue to the World Heritage Centre by 1 February 2009, for immediate transmission to the World Heritage Committee;
10. Requests moreover the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, before 1 February 2009, a report on the state of conservation of the property, including the results of the different studies requested above, for examination by the World Heritage Committee at its 33rd session in 2009, with a view to considering the deletion of the property from the World Heritage List.