Decision 44 COM 7A.47

Lake Turkana National Parks (Kenya) (N 801bis)

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC/21/44.COM/7A,
2. Recalling Decisions 36 COM 7B.3, 39 COM 7B.4, 40 COM 7B.80, 42 COM 7B.92 and 43 COM 7A.12 adopted at its 36th (Saint-Petersburg, 2012), 39th (Bonn, 2015), 40th (Istanbul/UNESCO, 2016), 42nd (Manama, 2018) and 43rd (Baku, 2019) sessions respectively,
3. Acknowledging the State Party’s continued efforts to implement the 2018-2028 Management Plan, requests the State Party to allocate adequate resources to protect the property, to bring the three component parts under one integrated management unit and to develop an operational plan and monitoring and evaluation system focused on the preservation of the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV);
4. Reiterates its deep regrets about the continued lack of a consolidated response by the States Parties of Kenya and Ethiopia to the Committee’s past decisions, and also requests the State Party of Ethiopia to provide an urgent update on all planned and current development projects in the Turkana Basin, and submit the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the Kuraz Sugar Development Project for review by the World Heritage Centre and the Advisory Bodies;
5. Expresses its concern about the long-standing threat of poaching and encroachment leading to steep decline and local extinctions of wildlife populations that represent the values for which the property was inscribed under Criterion (x), considers that this represents an ascertained danger to the property in accordance with Paragraph 180 of the Operational Guidelines, and decides to add this issue to the justification for the continued inclusion of the property on the List of World Heritage in Danger;
6. Deeply regrets that the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) to assess the cumulative impacts of the multiple developments in the Lake Turkana Basin on the OUV of the affected properties continues to be delayed due to lack of an agreement between the States Parties of Kenya and Ethiopia on its funding, and strongly urges the two States Parties to immediately conduct the SEA without any further delay for its findings to be examined by the Committee at its 45th session;
7. Further requests the State Party to finalise the proposed set of corrective measures and a Desired state of conservation for the removal of the property from the List of World Heritage in Danger (DSOCR) in consultation with the State Party of Ethopia, the World Heritage Centre and IUCN, for examination by the Committee at its 45th session;
8. Invites the State Party to consider redesigning the property’s boundaries to include a larger portion of the lake; and to give consideration, in line with Decision CONF 208 VIII.A, to resubmitting a cultural nomination of important fossil sites for human evolution outside the property that were nominated in 1997 but deferred by the Committee to allow revision of boundaries;
9. Requests furthermore the State Party to implement all other recommendations of the 2020 mission, which build upon earlier mission recommendations, in particular to:
   1. Develop a site-specific Biodiversity Action Plan to restore wildlife populations in the property to the time of inscription of the property,
   2. Conduct a comprehensive scientific study to assess the current impacts of grazing and develop a viable grazing pressure reduction strategy based on grazing capacities to address encroachment,
   3. Establish a long-term monitoring system for the collection and analysis of hydrological and limnological data in Lake Turkana to assess the ecological changes to the lake system and the related impact on the OUV of the property,
   4. Develop a national overarching Master Plan for development in and adjacent to Lake Turkana to avoid any negative impacts on the lake system and OUV of the property,
   5. Create buffer zone to the property, possibly covering the whole lake and other critical terrestrial areas with complementary legal and/or customary restrictions on its use and development;
10. Requests moreover the State Party to complete, as soon as possible, the work on the revision of the SEA for the Lamu Port-Sudan Ethiopia Transport Corridor Project (LAPSSET), taking into account both individual and cumulative impacts that the project and all of its sub-projects may have on the OUV of the property, as well as on Lamu Old Town World Heritage property, and that no further components of LAPSSET be implemented before the SEA is completed and submitted to the World Heritage Centre for review by the Advisory Bodies;
11. Reiterates its request to the State Party of Kenya to submit the ESIA for the Lamu-Lokichar Crude Oil pipeline, to the World Heritage Centre for review by IUCN before taking any decision that may be difficult to reverse;
12. Requests in addition the State Party of Kenya to convene as soon as possible, a workshop with participation from the State Party of Ethiopia, the World Heritage Centre and IUCN, to discuss the cumulative impacts of developments in the Lake Turkana Basin on the property’s OUV, and to finalise the DSOCR;
13. Finally requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 February 2022, 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 45th session;