Decision 38 COM 7B.93

Rwenzori Mountains National Park (Uganda) (N 684)

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC-14/38.COM/7B,
2. Recalling Decision 36 COM 7B.4, adopted at its 36th session (Saint-Petersburg, 2012),
3. Welcomes progress made in engaging local communities in management, fire protection activities, sustainable use of resources, sharing of benefits and recognition of the cultural values of the property as well as towards the development of a sustainable financing strategy for the property;
4. Also welcomes the ongoing trans-boundary collaboration with the management authorities responsible for the bordering Virunga National Park World Heritage property (Democratic Republic of the Congo) and also encourages the States Parties to continue their efforts towards developing a formal protocol to further strengthen this collaboration;
5. Acknowledges completion of an ecological monitoring plan for the property, the measures taken to strengthen management effectiveness and the work carried out to monitor the effects of climate change on snow recession, glacial melting and species dynamics, and reiterates its recommendation to the State Party to work with the Mountains Specialist Group of the World Commission on Protected Areas to safeguard the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the property in the long term;
6. Expresses its utmost concern about the decision by the State Party to award a 25 year concession agreement to re-open Kilembe copper mine around and potentially inside the property and urges the State Party to ensure that no mineral exploration or mining is allowed within the property, in line with the Committee’s established position that mining is incompatible with World Heritage status;
7. Requests the State Party to urgently submit to the World Heritage Centre details of the concession awarded to Tibet Hima Ltd and reiterates that before mining activity is resumed outside the property, a detailed environmental impact assessment should be conducted to asses the potential impacts on the OUV of the property in line with IUCN’s World Heritage Advice Note on Environmental Assessment;
8. Also requests the State Party to provide an electronic and three printed copies of the revised management plan, including the sustainable financing plan, for review by the World Heritage Centre and IUCN;
9. Further requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 December 2015, an updated report, including a 1-page executive summary, on the state of conservation of the property and the implementation of the above, for examination by the World Heritage Committee at its 40th session in 2016.