Decision 42 COM 7B.85

Galápagos Islands (Ecuador) (N 1bis)

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC/18/42.COM/7B,
2. Recalling Decision 40 COM 7B.74, adopted at its 40th session (Istanbul/UNESCO, 2016),
3. Commends the State Party for progress achieved with the further consolidation of governance and institutional arrangements related to the management of the property and with addressing the longstanding issues facing the property;
4. Notes with concern that, despite this progress, some of the requests made during its 34th session in 2010 when the property was removed from the List of World Heritage in Danger remain unresolved, and urges the State Party to implement all pending requests, particularly those related to tourism management and biosecurity, and requests the State Party to fully implement the recommendations made by the 2017 IUCN Reactive Monitoring mission;
5. Takes note of the various measures implemented by the State Party to discourage rapid and uncontrolled tourism growth in the property, and its commitment to a zero growth tourism model, and reiterates its requests to the State Party to develop and implement a clear tourism strategy that ensures that suitable measures are sustained in the long term as permanent regulations, including maintaining the moratorium on construction of new tourism projects and the limits on the number of flights;
6. Welcomes the establishment of a new zoning system within the property, including a new marine sanctuary and designation of other marine no-take zones, and also requests the State Party to provide adequate resources to enable the enforcement of the restrictions that apply to these areas and ensure the preservation of the property’s Outstanding Universal Value (OUV);
7. Also notes with concern that illegal fishing by foreign vessels in and outside the property continues to represent a threat to its OUV and further requests the State Party to continue its efforts to address this threat, including by:
   1. Building on existing collaboration between the States Parties of Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Panama to address international illegal fishing within the framework of the Eastern Tropical Pacific Corridor cooperation and other appropriate regional mechanisms, concentrating around the four natural marine World Heritage properties located in this region,
   2. Strengthening collaboration with other States Parties whose fishing vessels are found to be operating illegally within the property, or are illegally targeting migratory species that are part of the property’s OUV;
8. Requests furthermore the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 December 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 44th session in 2020.