Decision 41 COM 7A.10

Salonga National Park (Democratic Republic of the Congo) (N 280)

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC/17/41.COM/7A,
2. Recalling Decisions 36 COM 7A.7 and 40 COM 7A.40, adopted at its 36th (Saint-Petersburg, 2012) and 40th (Istanbul/UNESCO, 2016) sessions respectively,
3. Welcomes the establishment of a new Rapid Intervention Force and a Rapid Response Team to further strengthen the State Party’s efforts to effectively address poaching, and also welcomes the increase in surveillance coverage to 60% of the property;
4. Takes note of the preliminary findings of the inventory of flagship species, including bonobos and elephants, and reiterates its request to the State Party to submit the full findings of the inventories for all flagship species to the World Heritage Centre, as soon as they become available, and based on the results, to also submit an updated Desired state of conservation for the removal of the property from the List of World Heritage in Danger (DSOCR), which quantifies the indicators, for examination by the World Heritage Committee;
5. Requests the State Party to provide details of the reported ‘demographic explosion’ in the corridor, comprising of its potential causes, proposed measures to address them and the impacts on the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the property, including on the ‘sustainable conservation zones’ that have been identified by the State Party to be of particular importance in the ecological corridor to link the two components of the property;
6. Noting with appreciation the State Party’s intention to undertake a biological inventory in 2017 to assess the ecological connectivity between the two components of the property, also requests the State Party to submit the findings to the World Heritage Centre once they are available;
7. Also reiterates its request to the State Party to consider further options to improve the connectivity between the ‘sustainable conservation zones’ and the southern component of the property, and further requests the State Party to consider the findings of the above-mentioned biological inventory in reviewing the plan for the Multiple Use Zone;
8. Further reiterates its request to the State Party to urgently clarify its expression of interest in oil exploration and exploitation in the Central Basin, which includes the property, as communicated to the 2012 mission, and reiterates its position that oil and gas exploration or exploitation is incompatible with World Heritage status, which is supported by the commitments made by industry leaders such as Shell and Total not to undertake such activities within World Heritage properties;
9. Requests furthermore the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 February 2018, an updated report on the state of conservation of the property and the implementation of the above, for examination by the World Heritage Committee at its 42nd session in 2018;
10. Decides to continue to apply the Reinforced Monitoring Mechanism to the property;
11. Also decides to retain Salonga National Park (Democratic Republic of the Congo) on the List of World Heritage in Danger.