Decision 42 COM 7A.50

Salonga National Park (Democratic Republic of the Congo) (N 280)

Note: the following report on the World Heritage properties of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) needs to be read in conjunction with Item 52.

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC/18/42.COM/7A.Add,
2. Recalling Decision 41 COM 7A.10, adopted at its 41st session (Krakow, 2017),
3. Warmly welcomes the efforts of the State Party in implementing the corrective measures, in particular the involvement of the stakeholders in the management of the property and the implementation of a surveillance strategy and a triennial action plan and requests the State Party to continue these efforts;
4. Expresses its utmost concern as regards the attribution of three oil concessions within the property and the possible attribution of other blocks that would cover the entire property, reiterates its established position that oil exploration and exploitation are incompatible with World Heritage status;
5. Urges the State Party to cancel the current oil concessions that encroach part of the property and to prohibit the attribution of new concessions within the property and its periphery that could have negative and irreversible impacts on its Outstanding Universal Value (OUV);
6. Reiterates its request to the State Party to submit all the inventory results for all the flagship species to the World Heritage Centre, as soon as they are available;
7. Takes note of the information provided by the State Party concerning demographic explosion in the biological corridor of the property and also requests the State Party to:
   1. continue to implement the local development programmes to reduce pressure on the natural resources of the property,
   2. strengthen surveillance at Kasaï, notably by installing a permanent patrol post, to halt poaching and bush meat trafficking;
8. Also takes note of the proposed boundaries for the ecological continuum in the corridor and further requests the States Party, once the boundaries have been legally determined, to undertake the necessary measures to ensure the protection of this ecological continuum and also reiterates its request to the State Party to study other possibilities to improve the connectivity between the “sustainable conservation zones” and the southern components of the property;
9. Further takes note of the efforts of the State Party to initiate a voluntary relocation of the Yaelima communities outside the Park, and requests furthermore the State Party to ensure that this process is voluntary and in accordance with the provisions of the Convention and the pertinent international standards, including the principles of prior consent, given freely and with full knowledge of the facts (CPLCC), fair compensation, access to social services and the preservation of cultural rights;
10. Requests moreover the State Party to invite a joint World Heritage Centre/IUCN Reactive Monitoring mission to assess the state of conservation of the property, update the corrective measures and prepare a timetable for their implementation and finalize the Desired state of conservation for the removal of the property from the List of World Heritage in Danger (DSOCR);
11. Finally, 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;
12. Decides to continue to apply the Reinforced Monitoring Mechanism to the property;
13. Also decides to retain Salonga National Park (Democratic Republic of the Congo) on the List of World Heritage in Danger.