Decision 43 COM 7B.41

Tipasa (Algeria) (C 193)

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC/19/43.COM/7B,
2. Recalling Decision 41 COM 7B.74, adopted at its 41st session (Krakow, 2017),
3. Takes note of the progress being made by the State Party to improve the safety, security, monitoring, maintenance, and documentation of the property, and recommends that the lighting system be reviewed to ensure the most appropriate solution possible is being implemented;
4. Encourages the State Party to continue the implementation of the Plan for the Protection and Development of Tipasa Archaeological Sites (PPMVSA) and the guidelines for monitoring the urban development around the property following the approach of the 2011 Historic Urban Landscape Recommendation, including any visual impacts on the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the property;
5. Reiterates its request to the State Party to finalize and submit the updated Management Plan to the World Heritage Centre, for examination by the Advisory Bodies;
6. Also reiterates its request to the State Party to take into account the full range and substance of the recommendations made in the April 2017 Advisory mission, and in particular:
   1. Submit the final version of the Heritage Impact Assessment (HIA) for the port development project to the World Heritage Centre for examination by the Advisory Bodies,
   2. Integrate the landscaping of the jetty built between 2006 and 2009 with the port development project in order to mitigate the jetty’s visual impact and integrate it into the landscape,
   3. Continue the suspension of work on an embankment wall at the foot of the cliff pending further reflection in order to find a more suitable solution from a technical and landscape point of view, and submit this solution to the World Heritage Centre for examination by the Advisory Bodies,
   4. Organize an expert meeting to examine experiences at other World Heritage properties where issues similar to those of Tipasa have been addressed and satisfactory solutions envisaged,
   5. Consider once again an extension to the buffer zone to include the maritime domain in order to prevent future interventions that are likely to have a visual impact on the OUV of the property;
7. Reiterates its concern about the possible negative effect of rainwater runoff and its stagnation on the archaeological structures, and again urges the State Party to consider the solution proposed by the 2017 Advisory mission concerning the execution of archaeological surveys to identify and, if possible, operationalize the old rainwater drainage systems;
8. Requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 December 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 45th session in 2021.