Ivindo National Park

• concessions in the buffer zone of Ivindo National Park
• need to enhance the management, technical and financial capacity
• need to update the management plan of the property

On 22 February 2024, the State Party submitted a report on the state of conservation of the property, available at https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1653/documents/, which provides the following information:

• Following the mobilization of funds, in particular through the Norwegian government’s funds with UNESCO, the process of revising the Management Plan for the property, despite the delay caused by COVID-19 and the political and military crisis in Gabon in 2023, is now under way with the launch of the call for tenders in October 2023;
• At this date, no infrastructure or development project is under way within the area of the property, and any extension project, if feasible for the town of Makokou, will not be directed towards the property;
• The activities of the forestry concessions established in the buffer zone of the property are monitored by the park services, in collaboration with agents from the Ministry of Water and Forests, to ensure compliance with the recommendations and specifications;
• Of the five companies managing forestry concessions around the park, CEB and Rougier Gabon have Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification and the process is under way for KHLL and WCTS, while the concessions managed by ZING WANG, which nevertheless have a development, operation and processing plan, have not yet begun the FSC certification process;
• In addition to the appointment of a focal point responsible for monitoring all issues relating to its World Heritage Site status, a number of activities to be implemented in the context of updating the management plan, including renewal of the office of the Local Management Advisory Council (LMAC), training courses and an assessment using the IMET tool, will help to improve management, technical and financial capacities for effective conservation of the property;
• In addition to the activities carried out in collaboration with the Ipassa scientific research station, a wildlife inventory with teams from the Research Institute for Tropical Ecology (Institut de Recherche en Ecologie Tropicale (IRET) is under way and phenological monitoring based on tree fruiting and flowering will be launched in 2024.

It is recalled that at the time of inclusion of the property on the World Heritage List in 2021, the World Heritage Committee requested that the State Party update the General Management Plan for the property (the Management Plan 2016–2020) and ensure that this Plan take into account protection of the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the property, notably through biodiversity inventories and a monitoring plan for the biodiversity of its freshwater and Caesalpinioideae forests. In addition, it had to be supported by secure, sufficient and sustainable funding for management of the property.

Although the COVID-19 pandemic and the political and military crisis in Gabon in 2023 have delayed the process, it is positive to note that funding has been mobilized, thanks to the support of UNESCO through funding from Norway, and that the process of updating the Management Plan, with several other activities planned, has now been launched and should be completed by the end of 2024. It is recommended that the Committee request that the State Party finalize this process as soon as possible and submit the updated Management Plan to the World Heritage Centre by 1 February 2025, for review by IUCN. In addition, the new Enhancing our Heritage Toolkit 2.0 also provides useful advice on effective World Heritage management.

The absence of any current infrastructure and development projects in the area of the property is noted. Nevertheless, the Committee should remind the State Party that any project planned within the property, its buffer zone or its wider setting should be subject to a specific assessment of the potential impacts on the property’s OUV in accordance with the new Guidance and Toolkit for Impact Assessments in a World Heritage context, before decisions are taken that are difficult to reverse.

It should be noted that only two of the five companies managing the forest concessions around the property have FSC certification, thus complying with sustainable forest management procedures, and that the certification process is under way for two more. In view of the importance of sustainable forest management certification, the Committee should reiterate its recommendation to the State Party to ensure that all forest concessions in the buffer zone of the property are strictly controlled and managed without any significant impact on the property’s OUV and certified (FSC) by 2025, as projected by the State Party.

The appointment of a focal point to monitor all issues relating to its status as a World Heritage site, as well as the activities to be implemented in the context of updating the management plan, illustrate the State Party’s commitment to improving its managerial, technical and financial capacities for effective conservation of the property. It is recommended that the Committee encourage the State Party to continue its efforts, in particular by providing sufficient technical and financial resources to ensure that the property’s OUV is maintained.

As the property is included on the World Heritage List under criteria (ix) and (x), the wildlife inventory currently under way, as well as the phenological monitoring based on tree fruiting and flowering planned for 2024, are essential activities for monitoring the key attributes of the property’s OUV. It is recommended that the Committee encourage the State Party to continue its efforts and ensure that these inventories follow the same methodology over the long term to facilitate analysis of fauna and flora population trends within the property.