The World Heritage Committee,
- Having examined Document WHC/23/45.COM/8,
REFLECTION ON NOMINATIONS UNDER NATURAL CRITERIA - Recalling Paragraph 71 of the Operational Guidelines, encourages States Parties to consult the relevant IUCN gap analysis, and to seek as early as possible upstream advice from the Advisory Bodies during the development of their Tentative Lists, as appropriate, and to make full and effective use of IUCN’s global, regional and thematic studies when preparing nominations to be submitted under natural criteria;
- Taking into account the heavy budget constraints on the Convention’s resources, the need for an effective management of the increasing size of the World Heritage List and the call for a more balanced World Heritage List, urges States Parties to provide the necessary financial voluntary contributions to support the World Heritage Centre and the Advisory Bodies to prepare and implement jointly with the respective States Parties a series of 10-year regional action plans to provide priority support to regions under-represented in natural heritage, with a view to improving the regional balance on the World Heritage List and to fill important gaps that remain on the List for natural heritage;
NOMINATIONS NOT EVALUATED FOR THE EXTENDED 45TH SESSION - Decides that nominations, which were submitted for examination by the World Heritage Committee at its extended 44th (Fuzhou/online, 2021) and the extended 45th (Riyadh, 2023) sessions but which could not be evaluated due to the health and/or security situation, be examined at the 46th session of the Committee without impinging on national and overall quota of nominations (Paragraph 61 of the Operational Guidelines), in accordance with the timeframe foreseen in Paragraph 168 of the Operational Guidelines.