Decision 41 COM 7A.17

Selous Game Reserve (United Republic of Tanzania) (N 199bis)

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC/17/41.COM/7A,
2. Recalling Decisions 36 COM 7B.5, 36 COM 8B.43, 40 COM 7 and 40 COM 7A.47, adopted at its 36th (Saint-Petersburg, 2012) and 40th (Istanbul/UNESCO, 2016) session respectively,
3. Commends the State Party and its international partners for their on-going efforts to address poaching, and requests the State Party to submit the Selous Ecosystem Conservation and Development (SECAD) project plan to the World Heritage Centre and to report on progress of its implementation;
4. Welcoming the development of a draft Desired state of conservation for removal of the property from the List of World Heritage in Danger (DSOCR) and the Emergency Action Plan, also requests the State Party to submit the revised DSOCR to the World Heritage Centre for review by IUCN as soon as it is available, and to ensure adequate resources are available for the implementation of the Action Plan, and to report on progress made;
5. Notes with appreciation the development of a draft Action Plan by the States Parties of Tanzania and Mozambique to strengthen their collaboration to protect the Selous-Niassa corridor, and further requests the States Parties of Tanzania and Mozambique to submit the Action Plan to the World Heritage Centre and to report on progress of its implementation;
6. Reiterates its request to the States Parties of Tanzania and China to report on the activities carried out in the framework of their agreement to prevent wildlife crime;
7. Considering the high likelihood of serious and irreversible damage to the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the property resulting from the Stiegler’s Gorge Hydropower project, and noting the inclusion of the project in the updated 2016 national Power System Master Plan, strongly urges the State Party to conduct a comprehensive ESIA/HIA for this project before deciding to proceed with the construction of the project and submit to the World Heritage Centre for review in accordance with paragraph 172 of the Operational Guidelines and requests the State Party to consider alternative options to the Stiegler’s Gorge Hydropower project ;
8. Requests furthermore the State Party to fully implement all of the recommendations of the 2017 mission, in particular:
   1. To consider a project design of the Kidunda Dam that will not inundate any part of the property at full supply level, to include a model for the flooding regime in the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) for the project, and to submit it to the World Heritage Centre for review by IUCN,
   2. To develop an ESIA for the InSitu Leaching (ISL) method and any other method selected at the Mkuju River Project (MRP), should the project proceed to this stage,
   3. To propose an additional valuable wildlife forest area as an extension of the property as requested by the Committee in Decision 36 COM 8B.43;
9. Notes with concern the Kito-1 oil and gas prospecting concession located in the Kilombero Valley Floodplain Ramsar site, where drilling is expected to start in the third quarter of 2017, which may impact on the OUV of the property, and also urges the State Party to not permit drilling to proceed until a specialist study on the hydrological regime of the floodplain and a comprehensive EIA informed by the specialist study, have been undertaken and submitted to the World Heritage Centre for review by IUCN, in accordance with Paragraph 172 of the Operational Guidelines;
10. Finally 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 Selous Game Reserve (United Republic of Tanzania) on the List of World Heritage in Danger.