Decision 39 COM 7B.9

Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas (China) (N 1083bis)

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC-15/39.COM/7B,
2. Recalling Decision 37 COM 7B.12, adopted at its 37th session (Phnom Penh, 2013),
3. Welcomes the State Party’s commitment to refrain from granting prospecting and mining licenses in the property and its buffer zones, to respond swiftly and decidedly to illegal mining and to intensify management efforts, including responses to poaching;
4. Also welcomes the State Party’s readiness to conduct a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) to better understand the direct, indirect and cumulative impacts of the multiple projects on the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the property, and acknowledges that this is a challenging exercise for which limited guidance and relevant experience is available and which will require the development of an approach that is adapted to the local situation;
5. Reiterates its concern that the depth and quality of the Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) appear to be incompatible with the scale and complexity of the planned hydropower development that may affect the property, and that preparatory construction has advanced in the absence of approved EIAs in several locations, as confirmed by the State Party in Annex I to its report;
6. Notes with concern the slow progress on the implementation of the remaining recommendations of the 2013 Reactive Monitoring mission and urges the State Party to strengthen its efforts to:
   1. Not proceed with project implementation prior to appropriate EIAs having been completed,
   2. Submit maps of all licenses related to mining in the region surrounding the property, and including the area between the Hongshan and Haba Snow Mountain components of the property, to ensure that none overlap with the property,
   3. Ensure and monitor ecological and landscape connectivity in the area between the Hongshan and Haba Snow Mountain components of the property, including areas included in prospecting licenses,
   4. Urgently implement the remaining recommendations of the 2013 IUCN Reactive Monitoring mission, and in particular to:
      1. Give full consideration to the possible impacts of future electricity transmission infrastructure,
      2. Develop and implement a comprehensive management effectiveness assessment (MEA),
      3. Clarify the exact location and surface area of all national protected areas, components and buffer zones of the property and submit this information to the World Heritage Centre;
7. Requests the State Party, in consultation with the World Heritage Centre, IUCN and with both national and other international partners’ support, to urgently develop and implement measures to address the threats to the property;
8. Also requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 December 2016, an updated report, including a 1-page executive summary, on the state of conservation of the property and the progress made on the implementation of the above, for examination by the World Heritage Committee at its 41st session in 2017.