Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas

• Apparent decline in wildlife populations
• Water infrastructure (Major dams and related infrastructure)
• Mining
• Management systems/management plan (Inadequate management planning, including tourism planning; Unclear property boundaries)
• Illegal activities (issue resolved)

On 3 December 2016, the State Party submitted a state of conservation report, which is available at https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1083/documents and includes a discussion of rural poverty as a fundamental challenge underlying conservation challenges.

Acknowledging that local livelihoods have been affected by conservation, the coincidence of protected areas and local communities is suggested as a “contradiction”. Laws and regulations are offered as the primary means to limit economic activities in an effort to minimize harm to the natural values in the property and its buffer zones, jointly referred to as “commitment area”. Development outside is allowed as long as it does not affect the “relative integrity” of the property.

The State Party also states its intention of moving towards a more meaningful consideration of a broader range of stakeholders, including additional governmental levels and agencies, non-governmental organizations, local communities and the private sector.

Furthermore, the report responds to Committee Decision 39 COM 7B.9 (Bonn, 2015), as summarized hereafter:

• Significant investments since inscription are highlighted and the strong commitment to the property is reaffirmed;
• Legal mining is categorically excluded in the “commitment area” according to national and provincial legislation, including specific subnational regulations for the property, and said to not occur anymore. Strict management measures are reported to apply elsewhere;
• Hydropower development and associated infrastructure, including the West-East Electricity Transfer Project (WEETP) are reported to not have any direct impact on the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) due to their physical location outside of the “commitment area”. It is further stated that all works require previous approval of applicable Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA);
• Stressing the unusual scale, complexity and limited experience, preliminary achievements are reported as regards the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) at the level of Yunnan Province;
• Stressing the extraordinary biodiversity importance of the property, the need for better wildlife protection is recognized and a combination of law enforcement, research and monitoring is stated to have resulted in “obvious achievements”;
• The State Party endorses the necessity of a systematic approach to an encompassing Management Effectiveness Assessment, requiring refinement of the legal, policy and management frameworks; multiple activities at various governmental levels are reported to this effect.

The recognition of linkages between poverty, development and nature conservation is welcomed, while noting that a spatial separation of conservation and development is increasingly regarded as simplistic, and that effective conservation requires the best possible realization of the social and economic benefits of protected areas sustaining development and the integration of conservation into wider development planning.

Pressure on the property primarily stems from infrastructure development. Spatially separating conservation and development is not, in and of itself, an effective strategy to “harmonize the coexistence and relationship between development and the nature”, as the State Party puts it in one of its fundamental objectives. The highly significant modification of the river systems, which gave the property its name, amounts to a profound landscape change, with additional threats from large-scale water diversion programmes. While the projects may be located outside of the “commitment area”, the effects of disturbance, loss of connectivity, improved road access facilitating illicit activities and species invasions inevitably accompany large infrastructure projects beyond their spatial footprint. Besides, there are linkages between freshwater biodiversity and processes affected by dams and terrestrial ecosystems. Although located outside the property, the massive hydropower projects and the associated infrastructure objectively change the natural beauty and aesthetic importance of the valleys and their numerous important views, which contribute to the property’s OUV under criterion (vii), and cannot be restricted to selected elements of a landscape. Therefore, the visual impact of these infrastructure projects is considered to exert a direct negative impact on the OUV. 

Given the serial nature of the property, considerations beyond individual protected areas are particularly pertinent. An increasingly comprehensive consideration of the linkages between conservation and development is recommended and the related broadening of stakeholder involvement is most welcome.

The reaffirmation of the State Party’s commitment to consider the property and its buffer zones off limits with regard to mining is welcomed, as are the State Party’s rigorous efforts to close illegal mining operations. In line with Decision 37 COM 7B.12 (Phnom Penh, 2013), it is encouraged that any mineral exploration and extraction that would impact the OUV of the property is explicitly included in this commitment. Given past challenges with illegal mining, comprehensive monitoring and law enforcement responses, as required, are strongly encouraged.

Wildlife monitoring and protection efforts are noted, although they focus on selected wildlife species in selected areas, rather than on biodiversity at the scale of the property. As for the requested management effectiveness assessment, the State Party mostly refers to management planning activities, which do not amount to a comprehensive approach at this stage. Despite laudable signs of progress, the same holds true for the requested SEA. While fully acknowledging the scale of the challenges and investment needed, further strengthening of all related efforts is strongly recommended, including as regards tourism planning.

Even though no specific information was provided concerning the implementation of the recommendations of the 2013 IUCN Reactive Monitoring mission, the State Party’s considerable efforts to translate a strong commitment into effective conservation and management on the ground in a large and complex serial property are acknowledged. Reconciling conservation and development according to the national, provincial and local circumstances is a long-term task and the World Heritage Centre and IUCN continue to stand ready support the State Party as desired.