Decision 46 COM 7B.41

Old Town of Galle and its Fortifications (Sri Lanka) (C 451)

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC/24/46.COM/7B,
2. Recalling Decisions 45 COM 7B.172 and 45 COM 8E adopted at its extended 45th session (Riyadh, 2023),
3. Welcomes the State Party’s ongoing efforts for the protection, conservation and presentation of the property and its use of the recently adopted retrospective Statement of Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) to inform planning, management and conservation activities;
4. Encourages the State Party to continue developing its restoration and re-use approaches and methods to maximise the retention of historically authentic building fabric in the property;
5. Notes the continued implementation of the Integrated Management Plan (IMP) and the Sustainable Tourism Management Plan (STMP), welcomes the State Party’s plans to revise and combine these into a single updated management plan and to prepare a conservation master plan, that is recommended to be in line with the implementation of the UNESCO 2011 Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL Recommendation), and requests that, once ready, these documents be provided to the World Heritage Centre for review by the Advisory Bodies;
6. Notes that the Galle Heritage Foundation (GHF) has suitable staffing but lacks sufficient financial resources to undertake conservation activities and requests the State Party to investigate mechanisms, such as a tourism levy, to ensure that the GHF has sustainable financial resources to undertake conservation activities;
7. Requests that the Heritage Impact Assessment for the revised port development project be carried out in conformity with the Guidance and Toolkit for Impact Assessment in a World Heritage Context, focusing on the property’s OUV, and also requests the State Party to submit information, including plans, timelines and completed impact assessment reports for the revised port project to the World Heritage Centre for review by the Advisory Bodies before any decisions on the implementation of the port project are made;
8. Finally requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 December 2025, 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 48th session.