Decision 46 COM 7B.44

Natural and Cultural Heritage of the Ohrid region (Albania, North Macedonia) (C/N 99quater)

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC/24/46.COM/7B.Add.4,
2. Recalling Decisions 40 COM 7B.68, 41 COM 7B.34, 43 COM 7B.36, 44 COM 7B.77 and 45 COM 7B.104 adopted at its 40th (Istanbul/UNESCO, 2016), 41st (Krakow, 2017), 43rd (Baku, 2019), extended 44th (Fuzhou/online, 2021) and extended 45th (Riyadh, 2023) sessions respectively,
3. Takes note that the March 2024 joint World Heritage Centre/ICOMOS/IUCN Reactive Monitoring mission visited the property and that its conclusions and recommendations will be presented to the Committee at its 47th session;
4. Welcomes the revision of the Strategic Recovery Plan (SRP) based on the Committee’s recommendations, but notes that there is an urgent need to implement the SRP without delay and to prioritise its most urgent actions, in order to reverse the severe and multiple threats to the property that the Committee considered in 2021 as posing an actual and potential danger;
5. Requests the State Party of Albania to upgrade the status of the SRP, including through clear and reinforced governance, e.g. through government endorsement, to ensure the effectiveness of its implementation, and to promptly implement urgent measures to address existing threats to the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) and to improve the overall state of conservation of the property;
6. Urges the States Parties to reinforce the transboundary dialogue from high institutional level to the operational level to ensure its effective implementation, and also urges the States Parties to ensure that the Transboundary Watershed Management Committee operates on a regular basis, in a two-way dialogue with and supported by a transboundary working group, to ensure that transboundary issues are addressed promptly and effectively and that the pace of progress is monitored and reported;
7. Reiterates its request to the State Party of North Macedonia that:
   1. Amendments to Detailed Urban Plans and approval of Local Development Plans outside settlements be suspended until a Heritage Impact Assessment (HIA) at the strategic level is carried out and demonstrates that the attributes underlying the property’s OUV are not adversely affected by these plans,
   2. The General Urban Plans for Ohrid and Struga and the spatial planning instruments for non-built-up areas be elaborated as a matter of urgency and in full respect of the attributes underlying the OUV of the property,
   3. Systematically examine, based on explicit criteria, the extent of negative impacts of illegal buildings and decide how to eliminate or mitigate those adverse effects, including through by removing the illegal constructions or parts thereof,
   4. To submit to the World Heritage Centre, upon completion, the feasibility study for the Urban Plan for areas and buildings of State importance in the coastal belt of the Ohrid region for review by the Advisory Bodies;
8. Also reiterates its request to the State Party of Albania to formally remove:
   1. From the provisions of the Pogradec General Local Plan, the possibility of urban development in the areas along the lakeshore between Pogradec and Tushemisht and in Lin via an amendment of the GLP,
   2. From the Master Plan of the Drilon Spring Waterscape Park, the provision for the construction of a building on top of the hill near Drilon and of any infrastructure above and around it,
   3. The possibility of urban development in the rural area between Tushemisht and Drilon Area;
9. Further reiterates its request to the States Parties to urgently prepare a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) that comprehensively assesses the cumulative impacts of all infrastructure and development plans and other major projects on the property’s OUV and to submit it to the World Heritage Centre for review by the Advisory Bodies;
10. Further urges the State Party of North Macedonia to halt construction near Studenčišča Marsh and Gorica North and Gorica 3 complex until the above-mentioned SEA is undertaken and a project-specific HIA is completed;
11. Urges again the State Party of North Macedonia to finalise the proclamation of Studenčišča Marsh as a nature park and Lake Ohrid as a Monument of Nature, and to ensure that management measures preserve the key ecological processes and features which contribute to the property’s OUV;
12. Also requests to the State Party of Albania and the State Party of North Macedonia to submit to the World Heritage Centre for review by ICOMOS all project documentation concerning the project proposal for the conservation and enhancement of the Early Christian Church in Lin and the project for the rehabilitation of the promenade along the lake in Struga, respectively;
13. Urges furthermore the States Parties to undertake an SEA and/or an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) to assess the potential impact on the OUV of any alternative route of the railway Corridor VIII, for which the feasibility study should be prepared in 2024, and to submit all assessments and relevant technical information to the World Heritage Centre for review by the Advisory Bodies before any irreversible decisions are taken;
14. Finally requests the States Parties to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 February 2025, an updated joint report on the state of conservation of the property and the implementation of the above and in response to the recommendations of the mission report, for examination by the World Heritage Committee at its 47th session, considering that the urgent conservation needs of this property require a broad mobilisation to preserve its OUV, including the possible inscription on the List of World Heritage in Danger.