Canaima National Park
701
Venezuela
N(i) (ii) (iii)(iv)
The Committee recalled that the Bureau at its last session held in June 1994, had requested the Venezuelan authorities to revise the boundaries of the nominated area in accordance with the recommendations of IUCN, i.e. to exclude the savannah area which did not meet World Heritage criteria. The Committee was informed that, although there was no formal written response from the Venezuelan Park authorities with respect to the Bureau's recommendation, a senior staff member had verbally indicated that it would be difficult to consider revising the boundaries of this site.
The Committee noted that a population of about 10,000 was resident in the savannah (nearly 1 million ha of the 3 million ha area of the Park) and have not been consulted regarding the nomination of the area. Nevertheless, the Committee was satisfied that the area met all four natural World Heritage criteria and decided to inscribe the site on the World Heritage List. However, the Committee requested the Centre and IUCN to cooperate with the State Party to initiate a process to review the boundaries of the site, taking into consideration the interests of the local people and the need to focus the nomination on the tepui portion (approximately 2 million ha) of the Park.