Decision 40 COM 7B.85

Banc d’Arguin National Park (Mauritania) (N 506)

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC/16/40.COM/7B,
2. Recalling Decision 38 COM 7B.62, adopted at its 38th session (Doha, 2014),
3. Welcomes the progress made on implementing the recommendations of the 2014 joint Reactive Monitoring mission, as well as towards the application for the Particularly Sensitive Sea Area (PSSA) designation of the property and its surrounding areas and encourages the State Party to pursue its efforts to submit a completed application to the International Maritime Organization in February 2017;
4. Encourages the State Party to continue involving the local communities in the management and conservation of the property;
5. Notes that no oil or mining exploration permits are attributed within the property and that the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL) plan is in process, but expresses its concern about potential impacts if any of the ongoing exploration projects lead to exploitation, in particular, in oil blocks close to the property;
6. Requests the State Party to ensure that all future projects that could impact on the property are subject to an assessment of their impacts on the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV), in line with IUCN’s World Heritage Advice Note on Environmental Assessment, and to submit to the World Heritage Centre, for review by IUCN:
   1. A Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) of developments at Chami, in order to identify measures to avoid and where necessary mitigate impacts on the OUV of the property,
   2. EIAs for any future developments at the Tasiast gold mine and for off-shore oil exploitation;
7. Also requests the State Party to provide data on local and non-local use of the Nouamghar road collected by the new control points to ascertain that the road is not impacting on the OUV, in particular marine resources, of the property;
8. Further requests the State Party to fully implement all recommendations made by the 2014 mission, in particular:
   1. Ensure the sustainability of the current suveillance system, and maintain the ban on fishing by the non-Imraguen communities, and on fishing by motorized boats,
   2. In consultation with scientific organisations and the Imraguen local communitiy, address the problem of fishing of endangered species (sharks and rays) in order to guarantee their conservation; additional studies to identify any pressures on populations of turtles (reproductive and migratory) within the park also desirable,
   3. Put in place a permit system in order to prevent fishing pressure related to the immigration of non-resident communities which have come to fish,
   4. Undertake research to determine the effects of overfishing outside the property on the biodiversity located within the property, and reinforce measures to ensure the sustainability of fisheries located outside the property but in Mauritanian waters, in particular through regional and international cooperation;
9. Finally requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 December 2017, an updated report on the state of conservation of the property and the implementation of the above, for examination by the World Heritage Committee at its 42nd session in 2018.