Towards an Action Plan for World Heritage in Latin America and the Caribbean 2014-2024

The World Heritage Committee,

1.  Having examined document WHC-13/37.COM/10A,

2.  Recalling Decisions 32 COM 11D, 34 COM 10B.2, 35 COM 10B and 36 COM 10C adopted respectively at its 32nd (Quebec City, 2008), 34th (Brasilia, 2010), 35th (UNESCO, 2011) and 36th (Saint Petersburg, 2012) sessions,

3.  Expresses its sincere appreciation to the States Parties from Latin America and the Caribbean for their efforts in preparing and submitting their Periodic Reports and thanks especially all focal points and site managers for their effective participation and commitment;

4.  Notes with satisfaction that all the 32 States Parties from Latin America and the Caribbean have participated actively in the Periodic Reporting exercise and 29 Section I questionnaires and 122 Section II questionnaires were successfully submitted;

5.  Reiterates its satisfaction that at the moment of the launching of the second cycle, 116 draft retrospective Statements of Outstanding Universal Value were submitted and welcomes the final submission of 66 Statements for adoption by the World Heritage Committee at its 37th session;

6.  Thanks the authorities of Argentina, Barbados, Brazil, Chile, Dominican Republic and Mexico for their support in successfully organizing regional and sub-regional meetings, in collaboration with the World Heritage Centre and UNESCO field offices;

7.  Takes note of the successful use of the special electronic platform as an indispensable tool in providing the comprehensive documentation, gathered in the World Heritage Centre database for future monitoring and follow-up of the Action Plan and acknowledges the importance of this tool in developing the thematic working groups and their related programmes;

8.  Welcomes with satisfaction the synthesis report and endorses the proposal to develop the Action Plan to be submitted to the World Heritage Committee at its 38th session for evaluation;

9.  Requests the World Heritage Centre to develop the above-mentioned Action Plan, in collaboration with the States Parties of the region, the Advisory Bodies, the focal points, site managers and the World Heritage related-Category 2 Centres in the region and other partners;

10.  Also takes note of the significant progress made concerning the Retrospective Inventory for the region, both in terms of clarification of boundaries and minor boundary modifications and also requests the States Parties to continue participating actively in this regard, especially when clarifications or modifications of boundaries have been requested by the World Heritage Committee in relation to the evaluation of the state of conservation of the respective properties;

11.  Also thanks the Government of Spain for financing the translation of the Report containing the results of the Second Cycle of the Periodic Reporting into Spanish, further requests the World Heritage Centre to widely disseminate the Report among all stakeholders in the region, encourages the publication of the report in the World Heritage Papers series and calls on the international community to support the request;

12.  Decides that the significant modifications to boundaries and changes to criteria (re-nominations) requested by States Parties as a follow-up to the Second Cycle of the Periodic Reporting Exercise will not fall within the limit of two nominations per State Party per year imposed by Paragraph 61 of the Operational Guidelines , while they will still fall within the overall limit of forty-five complete nominations per year. This decision shall apply for the 1 February 2014 and 1 February 2015 deadlines for the Latin America and the Caribbean Region, after which time the normal limit established in Paragraph 61 will be resumed;

13.  Encourages the States Parties and all other World Heritage partners and stakeholders, including the UNESCO Category 2 Centres in the Region, to actively cooperate and to take the necessary actions to follow-up, in a concerted and concrete manner, towards the development of the Action Plan;

14.  Also encourages UNESCO Category 2 Centre for World Heritage of Zacatecas (Mexico) and the UNESCO Category 2 Centre Lucio Costa of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) for heritage management, when appropriate, to coordinate their activities and the development of learning tools in Portuguese and Spanish to implement the capacity-building strategy and associated programmes, also welcomes the establishment of an observatory for heritage management foreseen in Brazil, and calls for a close cooperation with the Caribbean Capacity building Programme (CCBP);

15.  Recognizes the valuable role played by local communities, including indigenous peoples, in the management of cultural and natural heritage properties and further encourages programmes at Latin America and the Caribbean World Heritage properties to also focus on the active involvement and participation of the local communities in their implementation and derivation of direct benefits;

16.  Also calls on the States Parties to cooperate with technical and financial resources at the national level to implement the Action Plan, and on the World Heritage Centre and the Advisory Bodies to provide support for its implementation.

The World Heritage Committee,

1.   Having examined Document WHC-12/36.COM/10C,

2.   Recalling decisions 28 COM 16, 7 EXT.COM 5E, 29 COM 5, 30 COM 11E, 32 COM 11D, 34 COM 10B.2 and 35 COM 10B adopted at its 28th (Suzhou, 2004), 7th extraordinary (UNESCO, 2004),29th (Durban, 2005), 30th (Vilnius, 2006), 32nd (Quebec City, 2008), 34th (Brasilia, 2010) and 35th (UNESCO, 2011) sessions, respectively,

3.   Acknowledges the information provided on the progress made in the implementation of the second cycle of the Periodic Reporting exercise in the Latin America and the Caribbean Region (LAC) and commends the States Parties for their efforts to achieve objectives in accordance with the approved calendar;

4.   Commends the States Parties of the LAC Region for their active involvement and commitment to the Periodic Reporting exercise;

5.   Thanks the States Parties of Dominican Republic, Brazil and Mexico for their financial and in-kind contributions to the organization of sub-regional meetings;

6.   Welcomes the financial collaboration for the Periodic Reporting exercise provided by the Spanish Funds-in-Trust for World Heritage, Category 2 Centres, States Parties and Advisory Bodies, and encourages them to continue to provide assistance for the implementation of the process;

7.   Takes note of the progress made  by the Qhapaq Ñan project, coordinated by the World Heritage Centre, and for the fruitful cooperation between national institutions from the various States Parties to develop it further as a best practice for other transnational and serial nominations, as requested by Decision 31 COM.12B;

8.   Requests the States Parties of the Latin America and the Caribbean Region to complete and submit the Periodic Reporting questionnaires to the World Heritage Centre by 31 July 2012;

9.   Also requests the World Heritage Centre to submit a final report on the results of the Second Cycle of the Periodic Reporting exercise for Latin America and the Caribbean for examination by the World Heritage Committee at its 37th session in 2013.