Decision: 37 COM 7B.31
The World Heritage Committee,
1. Having examined Document WHC-13/37.COM/7B.Add,
2. Recalling Decision 36 COM 7B.33 , adopted at its 36th session (Saint-Petersburg, 2012),
3. Requests the State Party to urgently finalize a draft Management Plan for the Special Zone of Marine Protection, adopt it and initiate its implementation, and to start with the independent Management Effectiveness Evaluation in order to inform the effective management for both Coiba National Park and its Special Zone of Marine Protection;
4. Reiterates its request to the State Party to develop and implement a coastal zone development and conservation policy in order to ensure that cumulative and combined coastal zone development impacts on the property’s Outstanding Universal Value are effectively addressed, and encourages the State Party to develop this policy on the basis of a Strategic Environmental Assessment of the coastal zone’s development potential;
5. Expresses its concern about the potential impacts of the naval base on the Outstanding Universal Value of the property, and also requests the State Party to take the necessary measures to minimize these impacts, in particular:
a) Put in place biosecurity measures to avoid that the naval base become a source of introduction of alien species,
b) Educate personnel to ensure they do not engage in trafficking of wildlife,
c) Ensure that personnel does not engage in agricultural production,
d) clearly mark boundaries, ideally with a fence, and as small as possible, with restrictions on movement of people beyond those boundaries,
e) Ensure that shore facilities are built and managed in such a way as to not destroy sea bottoms and contribute to erosion,
f) Not permit the airport to contribute to development pressures, such as tourism and hotels;
6. Urges the State Party to finalize the retrospective Statement of Outstanding Universal Value;
7. Further requests the State Party to invite a World Heritage Centre / IUCN reactive monitoring mission to consider the state of conservation of the property as a whole, including in regards to impacts from the development of a naval base, and to advise on the development of a management plan and on coastal policy development issues;
8. Requests furthermore the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 February 2014 , a report on the state of conservation of the property, and on the progress made on the issues mentioned above, for examination by the World Heritage Committee at its 38th session in 2014.