Decision 39 COM 7B.80

Archaeological Areas of Pompei, Herculaneum and Torre Annunziata (Italy) (C 829)

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC-15/39.COM/7B,
2. Recalling Decision 37 COM 7B.77, adopted at its 37th session (Phnom Penh, 2013),
3. Takes note of the steps taken by the State Party in the implementation of its previous decisions by improving the conservation and management of the property;
4. Endorses the recommendations of the joint World Heritage Centre/ICOMOS Reactive Monitoring mission to the property in November 2014 and requests the State Party to give highest priority to the implementation of its recommendations, notably to:
   1. Seek the extension of the Grande Progetto Pompei (GPP) and assess the resources needed to sustain the future management and conservation of the property,
   2. Include the additional five buildings that remain at risk, identified by the Reactive Monitoring mission, in the safeguarding programme,
   3. Resolve legal issues that are preventing necessary works at Pompei, as a matter of urgency, in order to continue the required consolidation works,
   4. Complete the management plan taking into consideration the recommendations provided by the Reactive Monitoring mission,
   5. Carefully monitor the results of the drainage work in Region II and IX of Pompei, and if successful, develop a similar programme for the other unexcavated parts of Regions IV and V, and possibly I,
   6. Seek to maintain the staffing levels after the GPP has been concluded and integrate the temporarily provided wardens into the regular system, in order to be able to open the property to the public on a permanent basis;
5. Encourages the State Party to pursue its conservation and protection efforts in light of the missions findings and also requests the State Party to resubmit the proposal for the buffer zone modification taking into account the recommendations of the 2014 mission and the World Heritage Committee’s Decision 38 COM 8B.51;
6. Further 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 implementation of the above, for examination by the World Heritage Committee at its 41st session in 2017.