Decision 39 COM 7B.75

Historic Centres of Berat and Gjirokastra (Albania) (C 569bis)

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC-15/39.COM/7B,
2. Recalling Decision 37 COM 7B.70, adopted at its 37th session (Phnom Penh, 2013),
3. Welcomes the efforts undertaken by the State Party to respond to the recommendations of the Committee and those of the ICOMOS Reactive Monitoring mission (2012), and encourages the State Party to proceed with the timely adoption and implementation of the new draft Law on Cultural Heritage as well as the new Regulation on the protection, conservation and management of the historic centre of Gjirokastra and its buffer zone;
4. Notes the progress made with controlling illegal constructions, the maintenance and conservation works, as well as the awareness raising and educational initiatives, and requests the State Party to continue to implement the previous recommendations, in particular:
   1. Develop an overarching integrated management plan, including a risk management component with threat mitigation measures,
   2. Ensure that the Tourism Development Strategy correlates with the management plan and Urban Developments plans, aiming to strike a balance between the creation of economic activity and the protection of the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV),
   3. Continue the processes of monitoring and controlling development, and prepare a focused set of monitoring indicators with a clear articulation of the attributes of OUV,
   4. Maintain the moratorium on any new constructions within the World Heritage property and its buffer zone, until the approval of the new Regulation for the protection, conservation and integrated management of the historic centre of Gjirokastra and its buffer zone,
   5. Continue the efforts to address the need of fire hydrants in both historic centres;
5. Also requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre the results of a Heritage Impact Assessment (HIA) concerning the entirety of the rehabilitation project at Berat Castle, for review by the Advisory Bodies;
6. Further requests the State Party to prepare a thorough study of the infrastructural situation of the historic centre of Gjirokastra prior to any decision is taken concerning the by-pass road and the conversion of the bazaar into a pedestrian area, and provide details of the project and the results of the study to the World Heritage Centre, for review by the Advisory Bodies;
7. Also encourages the State Party to continue to provide to the World Heritage Centre any development proposals before their official approval in line with Paragraph 172 of the Operational Guidelines for review by the Advisory Bodies;
8. Requests furthermore the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 December 2015 and 1 December 2016, 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 41st session in 2017.