Decision 45 COM 7B.5

Dja Faunal Reserve (Cameroon) (N 407)

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC/23/45.COM/7B,
2. Recalling Decisions 33 COM 7B.1, 34 COM 7B.1, 35 COM 7B.1, 36 COM 7B.1, 40 COM 7B.79, 43 COM 7B.29 and 44 COM 7B.173adopted respectively at its 33rd (Seville, 2009), 34th (Brasilia, 2010), 35th (UNESCO, 2011), 36th (Saint Petersburg, 2012), 40th (Istanbul/UNESCO, 2016), 43rd (Baku, 2019) and extended 44th (Fuzhou/online, 2021) sessions,
3. Commends the State Party for the improvement of surveillance efforts, the continuation of ecological monitoring, the reinforcement of staff numbers and capacities, the rehabilitation of the infrastructure of the management team, the application of laws in terms of wildlife crime, raising awareness of local communities and the development of community-based alternatives to poaching, and thanks the donors who continue to support the conservation of the property, in particular the European Commission and the Government of Norway;
4. Notes with satisfaction that no incident related to the poaching of elephants, large herbivores and great apes has been recorded since 2020, and that the wildlife inventory carried out in 2021 indicates that the density of large mammals has stabilized since the last inventory carried out in 2018;
5. Requests the State Party to submit the detailed wildlife inventory report to the World Heritage Centre for review by IUCN and to continue its surveillance and ecological monitoring efforts as well as the coordination of the interventions of the various stakeholders by strengthening the fight against poaching and the involvement of local communities in consultation meetings such as the Stakeholder Forum to improve the effectiveness of the management of the property;
6. Takes note of the validation of the Development Plan (2020-2024) for the property and its peripheral zone, and reiterates its request to create a functional buffer zone for the property, in consultation with the local communities and the various entities involved, and which is in line with the recommendations of the International Advisory Council on Biosphere Reserves;
7. Welcomes the State Party's decision to convert the forest concession retroceded by the SUDCAM company into community forests, requests it to undertake all the actions required to establish a participatory management model for this area with the local communities while ensuring management that will ensure the conservation of the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV), including biodiversity and the protection of great ape populations, and further reiterates its request to ensure that SUDCAM continues to implement sustainable and responsible production standards for the rubber sector, including independent certification of the latex processing plant to meet international environmental standards;
8. Reiterates the importance of maintaining ecological continuity between the south-eastern part of the property with the other protected areas of the Tri-national Dja-Odzala-Minkébé Landscape (TRIDOM) in order to guarantee the long-term integrity of the property, and reminds the State Party of the need to ensure that this wider landscape is taken into account in strategic documents such as the Regional Land-use and Sustainable Development Scheme for the Southern and Eastern Territory (SRADDT), development plans, and Environmental and Social Management Plans (ESMP) of private sector operators;
9. Regrets that the SRADDT as well as the Strategic Environmental and Social Assessment (SESA) confirmed in Decision 40 COM 7B.79 are not yet finalized and urges the State Party to finalize these documents and submit them to the World Heritage Centre for review by IUCN in accordance with Paragraph 172 of the Operational Guidelines;
10. Taking note of the information that the mining project of the GEOVIC Company has not currently restarted, welcomes the commitment of the State Party to require a new Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) in accordance with the Guidance and Toolkit for Impact Assessments in a World Heritage Context, before any decision relating to the project;
11. Also notes that no large-scale project is currently under way within the framework of the Integrated Development and Management Programme of the Dja mining loop and its adjacent border area (PADI-DJA) and reiterates that any new project must be subject to an ESIA before its approval, including a specific assessment of potential impacts on the OUV of the property, in accordance with the Guidance and Toolkit for Impact Assessments in a World Heritage Context;
12. Also requests the State Party to expedite the implementation of the recommendations of the UNESCO advisory missions to SUDCAM in 2019 and to the Mékin hydroelectric dam in 2020, and to provide detailed information on the measures taken to mitigate socio-environmental impacts;
13. Finally 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.