Decision 42 COM 7A.46

Mount Nimba Strict Nature Reserve (Côte d’Ivoire/Guinea) (N 155bis)

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC/18/42.COM/7A.Add,
2. Recalling Decision 41 COM 7A.6, adopted at its 41st session (Krakow, 2017),
3. Warmly welcomes the continued efforts of the State Party of Côte d’Ivoire to conduct anti-poaching patrols as well as ecological monitoring and requests the States Parties of Côte d’Ivoire and Guinea to provide additional information on the analysis of the data gathered during the surveillance patrols and the ecological monitoring, to enable an evaluation of the tendencies of anthropogenic activities, including poaching, and that of the populations of the key species in the property;
4. Also warmly welcomes the funding obtained to enable the implementation of the management functions of the Ivorian component of the property, expresses its concern as regards the level of formal trans-border collaboration and reiterates its request to the States Parties to develop trans-border management for the property and notably the necessary harmonization of ecological monitoring and the establishment of joint surveillance operations, and to prepare a follow-up of the Nimba Project on the entire property to promote the implementation of the corrective measures;
5. Takes note of the confirmation by the State Party of Côte d’Ivoire that no degraded area would be excluded from the Ivorian component of the property during the redefinition of the boundaries of the Reserve and also requests the State Party of Côte d’Ivoire to submit to the World Heritage Centre a high-resolution map of the updated boundaries.
6. Regrets that the report of the State Party of Guinea does not clearly distinguish the obsolete information from the current information concerning the implementation of the corrective measures;
7. Takes note of the information provided by the State Party of Guinea that all mining activities of the WAE and SMFG Companies have now been suspended and that the permit granted to the SAMA Resources Company has been withdrawn since 2014 and also reiterates its request that no new mining exploration and exploitation permits located around the property be granted without a Strategic Environmental Impact Assessment (SEIA) being carried out to evaluate the impacts on the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the property, including the accumulative effects of these projects;
8. Also regrets that the States Parties have provided no information concerning the road development project to facilitate transport within the Mano River Union, that would include tarmacking the Lola route (Guinea) – Danané (Côte d’Ivoire) passing by Mount Nimba, and further requests the States Parties:
   1. to provide additional information concerning this project,
   2. to ensure that the impacts of the project on the OUV of the property are assessed in the framework of an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA), in conformity with the IUCN World Heritage Advice Note on Environmental Assessment,
   3. to submit, as soon as possible, a copy of this ESIA to the World Heritage Centre for examination by IUCN ;
9. Further reiterates its request the States Parties to develop, in consultation with the World Heritage Centre and IUCN, a proposed Desired state of conservation for the removal of the property from the List of World Heritage in Danger (DSOCR) and all the corresponding indicators;
10. Moreover requests the States Parties to invite a joint World Heritage Centre/IUCN Reactive Monitoring mission, to assess the state of conservation of the property, to update the corrective measures, propose a timetable for their implementation, develop a proposed DSOCR, and evaluate the current state of the different mining projects surrounding the property;
11. Finally requests the States Parties to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 February 2019, an updated joint 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;
12. Decides to retain Mount Nimba Strict Nature Reserve (Côte d'Ivoire/Guinea) on the List of World Heritage in Danger.