Decision 28 COM 15B.57

28 COM 15B.57

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Recalling the concern at the time of inscription regarding the tourism and pilgrimage pressures facing the property,

2. Congratulates the State Party for initiating efforts to elaborate a comprehensive document relevant to the long-term conservation and management of the property;

3. Requests the State Party to pursue its efforts towards the finalisation of the current management plan for peer review by the Indian conservation professionals and taking into account the suggestions made by the Advisory Bodies in the joint ICCROM-ICOMOS paper, in particular focussing on:
a) integrating a heritage values-sensitive approach to management,
b) basing the document on protection of the inscribed Mahabodhi World heritage property,
c) developing a realistic implementation strategy,
d) including a peer review process within development of the plan;

4. Encourages the State Party to identify legal mechanisms to designate the Mahabodhi Temple Complex as a protected monument, to ensure maintenance of the buffer zone proposed by the State Part for Mahabodhi at the time of inscription, and to consider the possible extension of the core zone to include the Bodhgaya property;

5. Invites the State Party to organise a series of stakeholders’ interventions in the process of improving and finalising the management plan, and to submit a request for Technical Co-operation Assistance for this purpose;

6. Requests the World Heritage Centre and the Advisory Bodies to organise a first joint mission in order to assess the steps taken by the State Party to protect the World Heritage values of the property, and to submit its report for examination by the 29th session of the Committee in 2005.