Lamu Old Town

• Management systems/ management and conservation plan
• Clarification of boundaries and buffer zone
• Pressure from urban development
• Marine transport infrastructure
• Encroachment of the archaeological sites
• Housing/ Deterioration of dwellings
• Solid waste

Total amount provided: for a Heritage Impact Assessment in 2014: 85,000 USD: Netherlands Funds-in-Trust; for a workshop on Historic Urban Landscapes in 2011: 22,943 USD: Flanders Funds-in-Trust 

On 12 February 2016, the State Party submitted a state of conservation report, which is available at https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1055/documents and, in response to specific requests of the Committee, reports the following:

• No works on the Lamu-Southern Sudan-Ethiopia Transport (LAPSSET) corridor project have been undertaken near the World Heritage property and no works related to the infrastructure of the port have been started. To date, the only works to be completed are the port headquarters building, a four-storey office block of 1,500 square meters and a police station;
• The upgrading of the Manda Airport, which the State Party indicates is part of the Kenyan Government initiative to upgrade transport infrastructure rather than directly linked to LAPSSET, has been completed with a new Ksh 160,000,000 terminal building, a 2 kilometer runway, a fire station, and water supply infrastructure;
• The State Party is committed to submitting Heritage Impact Assessments (HIAs) for individual components of the LAPSSET once projects have been prepared. The State Party also commits to undertaking a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) for the overall LAPSSET project (although no time frame, or Terms of Reference for the study are included);
• The National Museums of Kenya is working with the County Government of Lamu and other partners on strengthening administration, management, legislation, and capacity building for conservation in Lamu. It is foreseen to ensure that the management plan is more strongly aligned with the three main planning instruments at the county level;
• In regard to the buffer zone of the property, the State Party is satisfied with the buffer zone that has already been presented previously to the World Heritage Centre and has no plans to propose any extension of the buffer zone including the Manda mangrove skyline’s buffer zone.

While it is acknowledged that the first two buildings constructed on the mainland as part of the LAPSSET project do not have an impact on the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the property, these two buildings are just part of a first phase of a much larger project which overall has a strong potential to impact on the OUV of the property in the future. 

The 2015 Reactive Monitoring mission requested a series of actions to be undertaken which would form the basis for an evaluation of the overall impact of the LAPSSET project on the property. These included the provision of documentation on the revised LAPSSET project as a whole, including plans for the extension of the airport on Manda Island, documentation on work already undertaken, the provision of a SEA for the LAPSSET project as a whole (building on the existing HIA for the port), for review and, on the basis of that review, the development of strengthened building regulations within the property, and a revised management plan to take into account the pressures that would result from the LAPSSET development.

The State Party has not supplied any updated information on the overall scope of the LAPSSET project and no plans or impact studies were submitted prior to the work being carried out on the upgrading of the Manda Airport, where it is reported a new terminal building has been completed along with an extension of the runway.  From the pictures which accompany the report, it seems that the development is substantial and it is unknown what impacts might result from this new airport infrastructure on the island adjacent to the property.

The State Party reports that future port developments on the Lamu Mainland will incorporate a sufficient buffer for Lamu Island and the property, but without giving any details as to how the impacts identified within the 2014 HIA on the first phase of the LAPSSET project would be mitigated, nor how it intends to implement the recommendations from the HIA.  

Furthermore, no details have been given as to how or when the requested SEA for the entire LAPSSET project will be carried out.  This impact assessment is considered crucial to understanding the overall potential impacts on the OUV of the property. Without such an assessment, it is not possible to define mitigation measures or necessary changes to strengthen the protection, development control and management of the property and its setting.

In regard to the buffer zone of the property, the World Heritage Committee, over many years, has requested that it be extended to deal with issues such as water catchment and visual impacts.  With the onset of the LAPSSET project, the extension of the buffer zone becomes more crucial as a means to control the potential negative impacts of the project on the OUV of the property and its setting that includes Lamu and Manda islands, and beyond. While the LAPSSET project itself may not build any infrastructure projects within the Lamu archipelago, the development pressures that result from LAPSSET will most likely have a strong impact on the archipelago as evidenced already by the extension of the Manda Airport. 

The State Party has indicated that it does not intend to extend the buffer zone beyond what was proposed to the 2015 mission, which the mission considered inadequate. It should be noted, however, that even this buffer zone proposed to the 2015 mission has not been formally submitted to the World Heritage Centre as a request for minor boundary modification.  The best approach now would be to wait until the SEA has been carried out.  At that time, it will be possible to better understand what the proper boundaries of the buffer zone should be, as well as the necessary protection and planning controls for the buffer zone and other parts of the setting of the property.  

It is recommended that the Committee express its concern that infrastructure and other projects associated with the LAPSSET project are being progressed in advance of a SEA being undertaken and without any additional formal constraints being put in place to protect the property and its setting from the associated development of the port project.

It is also recommended that the Committee consider urging the State Party to undertake, as a matter of priority, the SEA of the overall LAPSSET project so that its review can begin to identify ways to strengthen the protection of the property and its setting zone, to ensure that the port project and its associated infrastructure and development do not have a major negative impact on the property.