The Ninth General Assembly of States Parties to the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage was held in Paris, at UNESCO Headquarters, on 29 and 30 October, during the twenty-seventh session of the General Conference.
One hundred and fifteen of the one hundred and thirty-six States Parties to the Convention were represented at this meeting.
The representatives of two intergovernmental organizations and two non-governmental organizations attended the meeting as observers.
The list of participants is given is Annex I of this document.
In ...
7. The General Assembly elected by acclamation Mr. C. Leventis (Cyprus) as Chairman. The General Assembly also elected unanimously the representatives of Burkina Faso, China and Tunisia as Vice-Chairmen, and Mr. H. Palma (Peru) as Rapporteur.
8. The draft agenda of the session was adopted.
9. In accordance with the recommendation of the World Heritage Committee at its sixteenth session, the Chairman of the Committee, Mr. R. Milne, (United States of America) presented to the General Assembly the report that the Committee was submitting to the General Conference of UNESCO. The text of Mr. Milne's presentation, as well as the Committee's report to the General Conference, is presented in Annex II to this document. The General Assembly took note of this report.
9 GA 10-12
Examination of the statement of accounts of the World Heritage Fund, including the status of the States Parties' contributions
10. The General Assembly examined documents WHC-93/CONF.003/3 presenting the accounts of the World Heritage Fund, in accordance with the Financial Regulations of the Fund, and WHC.93/CONF.003/3 add. presenting the contributions received up to 28 October 1993. The Assembly was also informed that the following contributions had been received since 28 October 1993:
State Party Amount (US $) Year of contribution
Ethiopia ...
13. Under item 8 of its agenda, the General Assembly was called upon to elect seven Members to the World Heritage Committee, to replace the following seven Members whose mandate would expire at the end of the twenty-seventh session of the General Conference: Brazil, Cuba, France, Italy, Pakistan, Tunisia, United States of America. The list of the thirty-one States Parties having submitted their candidature was read to the Assembly. Upon the proposal of the Representative of Niger, seconded by numerous delegations, the General Assembly suspended its work to consult among groups with a view ...
29. The General Assembly felt that these elections showed that the voting system as set out in the Rules of Procedure was no longer suitable to the present situation. On the one hand, the requirement of obtaining an absolute majority had necessitated nine ballots, and, on the other hand, the system did not guarantee an equitable representation of the different cultures and regions of the world. Consequently, the General Assembly recommended that the revision of this item of its Rules of Procedure should be inscribed on the agenda of its next session, and requested the Secretariat to ...
The Bureau recalled that the Committee at its last session included this site in the List of World Heritage in Danger. Prevention of seasonal flooding has led to a decrease in the size and productivity of Srebarna and agricultural and residential use of surrounding areas have led to decline or disappearance of migratory and passerine bird populations. The Bureau recalled that IUCN, on the basis of two missions to the site in 1992, had concluded that Srebarna's World Heritage status may no longer be justified because it has deteriorated to a state where it may have irretrievably lost the ...
Sites: Srebarna Nature Reserve
The Bureau recalled that the integrity of this site, which has been inaccessible since the onset of armed conflict in the region in 1991, still remained intact. However, recognizing that the potential for a resurgence of hostilities continued to threaten the integrity of this site, the Committee, at its last session included the Plitvice Lakes National Park in the List of World Heritage in Danger and called upon the Government of Croatia, UNPROFOR and the authorities in the Krajina Region to co-operate to implement the Vance Plan and its successor resolutions to stabilize the political ...
Sites: Plitvice Lakes National Park
In 1981 the World Heritage Committee inscribed Mt. Nimba on the World Heritage List. In 1992 Mt Nimba was placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger by the Committee which requested the Centre to send an expert mission to: (a) ascertain the boundaries of the site at the time of inscription and recommend an appropriate boundary; (b) assess the impact of the iron-ore mine and other threats to the integrity of the site; (c) work towards an integrated rural development project.
The mission was carried out between 15 to 30 May 1993. It included representatives from the Centre, UNDP, UNEP, ...
Noting that the Ecuadorean authorities have not yet provided the information requested by the Committee, the Bureau requested the Centre to contact them once again and obtain information on the status of the road construction project and on-going efforts to assess its impact on the integrity of the site. In accordance with the recommendations of the Committee, the Bureau also invited the Ecuadorean authorities to consider (a) submitting a proposal to extend this World Heritage site to include new areas that have been added to the Park, and (b) inviting a mission comprising regional ...
Sites: Sangay National Park
The Bureau recalled that the Committee, at its last session, was informed that the damage caused by the invasion of this site by militants belonging to the Bodo tribe in Assam was estimated to be about US$1.6 million and that although the Park infrastructure had suffered considerable damage, habitats in the inaccessible parts of the Sanctuary appeared to be intact. Concerned by the information reported by the Representative of IUCN that the area is still not completely free from encroachments by militants belonging to the Bodo tribe, and that illegal cultivation was spreading into parts ...
Sites: Manas Wildlife Sanctuary
The Bureau recalled that the Committee, at its last session, included this site in the List of World Heritage in Danger because it was concerned that the region in which it is situated has been affected by civil disturbance and that six members of the Reserve staff were being held hostage since February 1992. The Bureau deeply regretted that two of the six Reserve staff who had been held hostage died during their captivity and the health of the other four who were released in April 1993 was found to be poor. The Bureau instructed the Centre to transmit the Committee's condolences to the ...
The Bureau recalled that the Committee, at its fifteenth session held in Carthage, Tunisia, in December 1991, noted that eight helicopters regularly overflew the waterfall area and that local conservation groups opposed the use of the area by helicopters since it contravened legal regulations for air traffic control over protected areas. The Bureau was satisfied to note that the efforts of the Argentine National Park Administration and the Air Force, to establish an agreement to regulate the use of air space over the Iguazu National Park by helicopters is proceeding. The Bureau urged the ...
Sites: Iguazu National Park
The Bureau was satisfied to note that the Brazilian authorities were in contact with their counterparts in Argentina to study the possibilities for establishing common regulations for helicopter traffic over the waterfalls area.
Sites: Iguaçu National Park
17 BUR VIII.2
Wrangell-St. Elias-Kluane-Glacier Bay National Parks (Canada/United States of America)
The Bureau recalled that the Committee, while approving the extension of this transfrontier site to include the Glacier Bay National Park (USA), at its last session, urged the American and the Canadian authorities to incorporate additional areas to the World Heritage property.
In this regard, the Bureau was pleased to be informed ty the Observer for Canada that the Provincial Government of British Columbia has decided to propose to the World Heritage Centre to establish a new provincial park in the Alsek Tatshenshint region and nominate this park as part of the transfrontier world ...
In response to the December 1992 request of the World Heritage Committee, two meetings were held with representatives of the Central African Republic (CAR) to discuss: (a) the protection of the site; (b) participation of local people, and (c) the social-economic ramifications of a "privatized management regime". The first meeting in April determined that the issues were of an administrative and legal nature rather than ecological and thus it was decided not to carry out a field mission.
On 10 May 1993 legal representatives of the Central African Republic, UNESCO and IUCN met at the World ...
The Bureau took note of the fact that the proposal to construct a road through of the Talamanca-La Amistad Reserves of Costa Rica is unlikely to be implemented in the immediate future. The Bureau was informed that the Costa Rican authorities were not in agreement with all the boundary modifications recommended by the Committee, at its fifteenth session. The Bureau noted that the Ministry of Natural Resources, Energy and Mines, which is responsible for the management of the Talamanca-La Amistad Reserves, and the general public, as well as the indigenous people resident within the site, ...
The Bureau noted with satisfaction that the size of this mixed World Heritage property might be enlarged by about 50% and that the new areas earmarked for inclusion in the Park may contain natural and cultural heritage values of universal significance. The Bureau was informed that an IUCN project in the buffer zone of the Park is working with 26 villages to find alternative livelihood strategies which will minimize the dependence of the indigenous people on resources within the World Heritage site.
The Bureau commended the efforts of the Government of Denmark which is supporting this ...
Sites: Tikal National Park
The Bureau recalled that at its last session the Committee was informed that the Government of New Zealand had approved an application from a private company for a licence to export water from this World Heritage site. The exportation of freshwater would require the construction of a dam, a buried pipeline and four large reservoirs at Jackson's Bay. The Committee noted that the visual and ecological impacts of the proposed development project were not clearly known and that the legal and economic considerations which guided the decision to approve the project were being actively debated ...