On November 10, 2016, Prof Shahbaz Khan, Director of UNESCO Office Jakarta, Prof Runtung Sitepu, Rector of USU, Prof Syamsul Arifin from the Faculty of Law, and Prof R. Hamdani from the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, met in USU campus in Medan to discuss with regards to the progress of the ongoing legal study and the main issues of the TRHS in terms of its legal status and protection.

The discussion highlighted different aspects such as the different legal frameworks for protected areas in Indonesia, the harmonization of local and national laws, the involvement of local and indigenous communities and their customary laws, or the legal implications of protecting the outstanding universal value of TRHS from further threats such as road development, deforestation or mining.

The full legal analysis related to the protection of the integrity of the TRHS would be the basis of a workshop to be conducted on 11 November 2016 in Medan, in order to present the results of the study to the key stakeholders in TRHS and receive feedback from them. The workshop will also be an opportunity to share the progress of the Strategic Environmental Assessment of the effects of road development plans in the World Heritage property and discuss how to better incorporate the legal analysis in the latter.

UNESCO and USU discussion was followed by the possibility of further collaboration and joint activities between UNESCO and USU in the near future in areas such as environmental law, law enforcement in UNESCO designated sites, or sustainable natural resources management, with the aim to develop a strong partnership among the two institutions for the sustainable development of Indonesia.