Decision 41 COM 7A.3

Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve (Honduras) (N 196)

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC/17/41.COM/7A,
2. Recalling Decision 40 COM 7A.33, adopted at its 40th session (Istanbul/UNESCO, 2016),
3. Commends the State Party and governmental and non-governmental partners on further progress made in integrated monitoring and granting negotiated local access to land and natural resources, and encourages the State Party and partners to continue and enhance these efforts;
4. Welcomes the State Party’s effort to accomplish an extensive titling process in favour of indigenous peoples that are settled within and beyond the limits of the property;
5. Notes the efforts made by the State Party in order to control illegal activities, however reiterates its concern that human, financial and logistical resources allocated by the State Party continue to be inadequate to address these challenges;
6. Recommends that the State Party maintain the overflights and ground level surveys to detect illegal activities and to detect illegal new settlements as early as possible to enable immediate responses, avoiding evictions after the full establishment of settlements;
7. Also encourages the State Party to further follow up on the conclusions and recommendations of the discussions facilitated by the provisions of the 2015 International Assistance, by continuing the consultation and negotiation process underpinning elaboration of a proposal for a significant boundary modification, which fully considers the interests, rights and aspirations of indigenous peoples, Afro-Honduran and Ladino (mestizo) communities, with the technical support of the World Heritage Centre and IUCN, as required;
8. Considers that the significant boundary modification and the efforts to remove the property from the List of World Heritage in Danger are intricately linked and should be regarded and managed as one coherent effort;
9. Recalls its request to the State Party to report on the possible impacts of the Patuca III project, and requests the State Party to ensure that current and potential impacts on the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the property are specifically assessed, in line with IUCN’s World Heritage Advice Note on Environmental Assessment, and to ensure that the implementation of this project will not be permitted before this assessment is completed;
10. Also requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 February 2018, 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 42nd session in 2018;
11. Decides to retain Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve (Honduras) on the List of World Heritage in Danger.