Decision 45 COM 7B.124

Lower Valley of the Omo (Ethiopia) (C 17)

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC/23/45.COM/7B,
2. Recalling Decision 44 COM 7B.4 adopted at its extended 44th session (Fuzhou/online, 2021),
3. Welcomes the ongoing work to develop maps of the Lower Valley of the Omo, to clarify a boundary for the World Heritage property and to propose a buffer zone and notes the support of a European Union-funded project and the involvement of the Ethiopian Geo-spatial Agency and Federal and Regional stakeholders;
4. Recalls the need for maps to be based on an assessment of fossil-bearing sediments, in order to more clearly define areas of potential archaeological importance, and the recommendations of the 2015 mission that management strategies should respect a visually coherent landscape with no development between visible outcrops and requests the State Party to submit larger-scale maps for review by the Advisory Bodies, together with evidence from archaeological surveys upon which they are based and related protection and management proposals;
5. Commends the State Party for updating the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA), including an associated community consultation on social and environmental impacts and benefits of the Kuraz Sugar Development Project (KSDP), and that this has been submitted to the World Heritage Centre for review by the Advisory Bodies;
6. Further notes that the State Party intends to update the Heritage Impact Assessment (HIA) developed in 2017 on the basis of the proposed boundary delineation, and requests the State Party to submit the updated HIA for review once it is finalised;
7. Urges the State Party to continue its dialogue with the State Party of Kenya to accelerate the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) process for assessing the potential impacts of the Gibe III dam and Kuraz project on the Lake Turkana basin including on the attributes of OUV of both the Lower Valley of the Omo (Ethiopia) and Lake Turkana (Kenya) properties, based on the established mechanism of Joint Technical Experts Panel, as requested by the Committee since 2012, and thanks the Government of Norway for its generous financial support for this SEA;
8. Requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 December 2024, 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 47th session.