Kathmandu Valley

a) Uncontrolled urban development resulting in the loss of traditional urban fabric, in particular privately-owned houses;

b) Lack of co-ordinated management mechanism

• Partial or significant deterioration of traditional elements of heritage in six of the seven monument zones;
• General loss of authenticity and integrity.

Proposed corrective measures are included in the draft Decision

Total amount provided to the property: between USD 10 and 15 million under the International Safeguarding Campaign for the Kathmandu Valley (1979-2001). The campaign was officially closed in 2001. An amount of USD 45,000 was provided in 2005 by the Dutch Funds-in-Trust for the establishment of the management plan for the property.

In response to the Decisions made by the Committee at its 27th (UNESCO, 2003), 28th (Suzhou, 2004) and 29th (Durban, 2005) sessions, the State Party submitted on 1 February 2006 a proposal for a “minor modification” to the boundaries of the seven monument zones and a proposal for a name change, according to the procedures established in the Operational Guidelines paragraphs 163, 164 and 167. These modifications have been examined by ICOMOS and are presented in Document WHC-06/30.COM/INF.8B.1. It is currently not possible for the State Party to legally redefine the World Heritage boundaries, pending the Committee’s approval of these redefined boundaries. Until such a time, legislative provisions are being made in order to facilitate their timely adoption.

As requested by the Committee, the State Party reviewed the validity of the existing criteria (iii)(iv)(vi) and in its proposal, indicated that the criteria used for inscription of the Kathmandu Valley in 1979 would be still applicable and define the Outstanding Universal Value of the site. The proposed modification to the boundaries has been prepared bearing in mind the criteria for inscription, the integrity of the site, and the conservation of the attributes that define the Outstanding Universal Value of the site.

The technical evaluation carried out by ICOMOS of the proposed new property name and the proposed “minor modification” of boundaries suggests that the modification proposal made by the State Party is sufficiently important to constitute consideration as a “major modification”, and should therefore follow the same procedures as for new nominations.

ICOMOS considers that the boundary revision and the development of a Statement of Outstanding Universal Value should correspond to both the monumental ensembles and the surrounding traditional vernacular buildings, which had been inscribed in 1979 and have retained their Outstanding Universal Value.

The State Party suggested the name “Kathmandu Valley” be changed to “Seven Monument Ensembles of the Kathmandu Valley”, whereas ICOMOS recommends “ “Seven historic ensembles of the Kathmandu Valley”.

The comprehensive progress report on the state of conservation received on 6 February 2006 provides an extensive description of a number of major restoration works to monuments which have been carried out and monitored by the national and municipal heritage units. The ongoing preparation by the State Party of the inventory of categorised heritage buildings in the seven monument zones is reported as partially complete. The Department of Archaeology, together with the municipalities, also continues to undertake conservation activities of these inventoried heritage buildings, in particular the monumental ensembles.

The integrated management plan (IMP) for the Kathmandu Valley World Heritage Site is currently under preparation by the Department of Archaeology, in close collaboration with the World Heritage Centre and the UNESCO-Kathmandu Office, with financial assistance from the Dutch Government. The complexity of the management of the World Heritage property is a result of the widespread and varied nature of the seven Monument Zones, which are situated in three municipalities and a village, as well as having a royal Trust as a site-management agency in one of the zones. The IMP addresses this situation by advocating that each municipality and agency make appropriate decisions for the conservation priorities and to be able to provide coherent technical advice to the local population. The significant efforts made by the Nepali authorities to complete the IMP are to be commended. Although the completion of the IMP was initially scheduled for summer 2006, given the complex nature of the plan as indicated above, it is judged important to provide an additional year, until summer 2007, in order to ensure its full and effective completion. Without this extra time to ensure stakeholder agreement and support for the results, ICOMOS and the World Heritage Centre believe that the IMP would not have sufficient local support, nor the necessary credibility to be fully implemented.

ICOMOS and the World Heritage Centre wish to note that, while the technical evaluation carried out by ICOMOS in Document WHC-06/30.COM/INF.8B.1 recommends to postpone the approval of the proposed redefined boundaries and encourages a full nomination document be compiled for the renomination of the property, it is important that such efforts should not delay the on-going work on the Integrated Management Plan for the property.

In the framework of the IMP, the State Party has adopted a policy to revise building by-laws in order to ensure the integrity of the heritage areas. The revised building by-laws will take into consideration the specificity of monument zones, and prioritise restoration over reconstruction. This is intended to function as a corrective measure to address illegal building activities. Furthermore, monitoring measures are being devised to improve the implementation of conservation policies and by-laws, using the Bhaktapur monument zone as a pilot case.

A digital documentation database on the Kathmandu Valley World Heritage Site, which centralises all information available concerning the site, is being prepared as the basis for the establishment of a heritage documentation centre for the Kathmandu Valley, to be accessible to the public. A third and final mission of the University of Venice (IUAV) in summer 2005 completed the inventory and categorization of privately owned buildings in the World Heritage property. The results of all three IUAV surveys in 2003, 2004 and 2005 have been transmitted to the State Party, notably to the municipalities, who will now be able to make use of this data for monitoring purposes. ICOMOS emphasises that a conservation expert mission in August 2005 noted that the State Party did not possess the important documentation from many earlier missions carried out to the site during the 1990s with the support of the World Heritage Fund. ICOMOS recommends that the process of preparing a consultable database should begin with efforts to recover, catalogue and scan all earlier documentation projects carried out on the World Heritage property.

The World Heritage Centre and ICOMOS consider that, in light of the progress made in implementing the Decisions of the Committee, a fully operational site management system including assured implementation of conservation guidelines and building regulations within the IMP, and appropriate legislative protection in order to safeguard the remaining integrity of the property, would constitute the benchmarks for removal of the property from the List of World Heritage in Danger. Furthermore, these benchmarks could be met within the framework of the requested renomination procedure, following the evaluation presented in Document WHC-06/30.COM/INF.8B.1. Given the complexity of the issues involved and the difficult political situation in Nepal, these benchmarks could be achieved by 1 February 2009 in time for the 33rd session of the Committee.

A review mission is planned for late June 2006 with a view to providing guidance in the finalisation of the IMP.