The World Heritage Committee,
- Having examined Document WHC/18/42.COM/7A,
- Recalling Decision 41 COM 7A.3, adopted at its 41st session (Kraków, 2017),
- Commends the State Party and governmental and non-governmental partners on continued progress made in land titling and granting negotiated local access to natural resources in the buffer and cultural zones of the biosphere reserve, encourages the State Party and partners involved to consolidate the innovative and promising governance mechanisms and urges the State Party to develop an effective and funded exit strategy to sustain these advances beyond the duration of external project support;
- Reiterates its strong concern that human, financial and logistical resources allocated by the State Party continue to be insufficient to ensure systematic law enforcement, presence on the ground and adequate monitoring of the property;
- Reiterates its recommendation that the State Party maintain the overflights and ground level surveys to detect illegal activities and illegal new settlements as early as possible to enable immediate responses, avoiding evictions after the full establishment of settlements;
- Also urges the State Party to take concrete steps to follow up on the updated conclusions and recommendations facilitated by the 2017 Advisory mission regarding the Significant Boundary Modification and the efforts to remove the property from the List of World Heritage in Danger - in line with the Desired state of conservation for the removal of the property from the List of World Heritage in Danger (DSOCR) adopted in 2015 - with the technical support of the World Heritage Centre and IUCN, as required;
- Welcomes the acknowledgement of the possible benefits of a Significant Boundary Modification by the State Party, while fully respecting the interests, rights and aspirations of indigenous peoples, Afro-Honduran and Ladino (mestizo) communities;
- Expresses its utmost concern that the State Party did not report on the possible impacts of the Patuca III project despite repeated requests, and requests the State Party to ensure that current and potential impacts on the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the property are specifically assessed urgently, in line with IUCN’s World Heritage Advice Note on Environmental Assessment, and to ensure that the project will not proceed before this assessment is completed;
- Also requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 February 2019, 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 43rd session in 2019;
- Decides to retain Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve (Honduras) on the List of World Heritage in Danger.