Decision 14 BUR IV.A.28

Niokolo-Koba National Park (Senegal)

The Bureau recalled that during 1989, both the Bureau and the Committee had expressed concern regarding the proposed construction of a major highway, based on an existing track, across the park, which could greatly jeopardize its natural values. Following the Committee session in December, President Diouf of Senegal had written to the Director-General of Unesco assuring Senegal's commitment to safeguarding the natural heritage of this site. The representative of Senegal informed the Bureau that since President Diouf's letter, a decree had been promulgated creating a technical committee which would undertake a comparative ecological and socio-economic study of the proposed route across the park and of the alternative route to the north outside the park boundaries (which had been recently marked out by the national park service). The terms of reference and the list of members of this technical committee had been drawn up. The Bureau welcomed the invitation of the representative of Senegal that Unesco and IUCN should send representatives to a meeting in July 1990 in Dakar to launch the comparative study. The Bureau requested that the Unesco and IUCN representatives at this meeting ensure that the Committee's concerns were taken into account and eventually help identify potential funding sources for the additional costs of the route outside the park.