Decision 40 COM 7B.75

Islands and Protected Areas of the Gulf of California (Mexico) (N 1182ter)

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC/16/40.COM/7B.Add,
2. Highly commends the State Party for its efforts aimed at the preservation of the critically endangered vaquita and totoaba, but notes with utmost concern that the status of the vaquita population has become extremely critical and that the species is threatened with extinction, possibly as early as 2018;
3. Considers that the critical status of the vaquita population represents an ascertained danger to the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the property, in accordance with Paragraph 180 of the Operational Guidelines;
4. Requests the State Party to continue its efforts and take urgent additional measures to address the threats to vaquita and totoaba, including further promotion of a switch to alternative fishing gear for shrimp fishing, and the introduction of an extension of the suspension of gillnet-based fishing activities in the Northern Gulf of California beyond two years and an eventual introduction of a permanent ban on gillnet fishing in the entire range of vaquita;
5. Notes the conclusion of the State Party that the key threat to both totoaba, as the target, and vaquita, as bycatch, is posed by illegal fishing of totoaba, including by criminal organizations involved in illegal international trafficking of totoaba swim bladders, and welcomes the dialogue established by the State Party with the Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and urges the State Party to pursue this dialogue and to continue to take actions at national level against criminal networks involved in totoaba trafficking;
6. Calls upon the States Parties, which are transit and destination countries for totoaba swim bladder, to support the State Party to halt the illegal trade in totoaba swim bladder and other illegal wildlife products, in particular through the implementation of the CITES Convention;
7. Also requests the State Party to invite, as a matter of urgency, a joint World Heritage Centre/IUCN Reactive Monitoring mission to the property to assess its current state of conservation and to evaluate whether the property meets the conditions for inscription on the List of World Heritage in Danger;
8. Further requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 February 2017, 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 41st session in 2017, with a view to considering, in the case of confirmation of the ascertained or potential danger to the Outstanding Universal Value, the possible inscription of the property on the List of World Heritage in Danger.