Decision 43 COM 7B.1

Socotra Archipelago (Yemen) (N 1263)

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC/19/43.COM/7B.Add.2,
2. Recalling Decisions 40 COM 7B.86, 41 COM 7B.23 and 42 COM 7B.100, adopted at its 40th (Istanbul/UNESCO, 2016), 41st (Krakow, 2017) and 42nd (Manama, 2018) sessions respectively,
3. Welcomes the State Party’s repeated invitations for the joint World Heritage Centre/IUCN Reactive Monitoring mission to the property requested at its previous sessions, and regrets that the mission could not be undertaken due to the ongoing security situation in Yemen and logistical constraints;
4. Acknowledges the State Party’s efforts to address illegal development in the property, but notes with concern reported unregulated construction including at Delisha beach and Serhin Lagoon, and requests the State Party to take immediate action to address any resulting impacts, including through implementation of the Socotran special committee recommendations, and reiterates its request to halt any activity that may have a potential impact on the property’s Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) and to refrain from allowing any further development in the property, until planned activities and projects in the property and its buffer zone have been submitted to the World Heritage Centre for review by IUCN, prior to taking any decisions regarding their implementation that would be difficult to reverse, in accordance with Paragraph 172 of the Operational Guidelines;
5. Also notes with concern that no information has been provided to determine the overall state of the property’s natural resources, including potential impacts of unsustainable fishing pressure on the state of conservation of marine resources;
6. Also acknowledges the State Party’s efforts to implement measures to control Invasive Alien Species (IAS) and, also recalling the potentially devastating impacts of IAS on the highly unique natural environment of Socotra, urges the State Party to strengthen measures to address biosecurity controls;
7. Reiterates its utmost concern about the multiple reported threats to the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the property, resulting from uncontrolled developments, unsustainable use of natural resources, and the absence of adequate biosecurity measures to avoid the introduction of invasive alien species (IAS), and considers that all these factors represent a potential danger to the OUV of the property;
8. Reiterates again the need for the invited joint World Heritage Centre/IUCN Reactive Monitoring mission to the property to take place as a matter of urgency, in order to assess its current state of conservation, in particular in relation to the above-mentioned threats, and to review whether the property meets the conditions for inscription on the List of World Heritage in Danger;
9. Also welcomes the State Party’s intention to hold a technical meeting following the mission, focused on how to ensure the protection of the property’s OUV while also promoting appropriate sustainable development for the people of Socotra, and also reiterates its request for this meeting to be urgently undertaken with the Yemeni authorities, the World Heritage Centre, IUCN and concerned parties;
10. Requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 February 2020, 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, with a view to considering, in case of the confirmation of potential or ascertained danger to its Outstanding Universal Value, the possible inscription of the property on the List of World Heritage in Danger.