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Decision : 39 COM 7A.4
Virunga National Park (Democratic Republic of the Congo) (N 63)

The World Heritage Committee,
  1. Having examined Document WHC-15/39.COM/7A,
  2. Recalling Decisions 38 COM 7A.37 and 38 COM 7A.42, adopted at its 38th session (Doha, 2014),
  3. Notes with appreciation the continued efforts deployed by the park staff to continue to ensure the conservation of the property despite life threatening conditions, and expresses its most sincere condolences to the families of the guards killed in operations for the protection of the property;
  4. Welcomes the improvement of the security situation and the fact that park surveillance coverage has increased to 75% and that all critical areas for large mammals are under control of the park management;
  5. Reiterates its significant concern about the fact that the State Party has not cancelled the petroleum licenses in the Park, as requested in its previous decisions, and strongly urges the State Party to cancel all the oil exploitation permits granted within the property without further delay and to make a clear commitment not to authorize further oil exploration or oil exploitation within the established boundaries of the property as it was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1979;
  6. Also reiterates its position that oil, gas and mineral exploration or exploitation are incompatible with World Heritage status;
  7. Notes with concern that the Prime Minister in its letter dated 26 January 2015, while affirming that the Government so far has not approved oil exploitation in Virunga National Park, acknowledges that the State Party might seek a minor boundary modification to enable exploitation to go ahead;
  8. Further reiterates its position that oil 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 and underlines that modifications to boundaries of World Heritage properties that are related to extractive industry should be dealt with through the procedure for significant modifications of boundaries, in accordance with Paragraph 165 of the Operational Guidelines given the potential impact of such projects on the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV);
  9. Recalls that the Statement of OUV of the property refers on several occasions to the importance of Lake Edward and its floodplains for its OUV and therefore, considers that removing this area from the property would have a significant negative impact on its OUV;
  10. Expresses its continued concern about the serious threats to the OUV of the property, in particular the encroachment of close to 10% of its surface by illegal settlements and uncontrolled agriculture and the limited support park staff is receiving from the Government to address these threats, and further reiterates its request to the State Party to implement the commitments made by the Congolese Government in the Kinshasa Declaration of January 2011;
  11. Encourages the work of the Virunga Alliance, which aims to support sustainable economic development around the park, and also encourages private, bilateral and multilateral donors to support this initiative;
  12. Also urges the State Party to expedite implementation of the corrective measures, as updated by the 2014 joint World Heritage Centre / IUCN Reactive Monitoring mission;
  13. Requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 February 2016, an updated report, including a 1-page executive summary, on the state of conservation of the property and the implementation of the above, for examination by the World Heritage Committee at its 40th session in 2016;
  14. Decides to continue the application of the Reinforced Monitoring Mechanism of the property;
  15. Also decides to retain the Virunga National Park (Democratic Republic of the Congo) on the List of World Heritage in Danger.
Documents
 Decisions Report
Context of Decision
 WHC-15/39.COM/7A
Decision Code: 39 COM 7A.4
Themes: Conservation, List of World Heritage in Danger
States Parties (1): Democratic Republic of the Congo
Properties (1): Virunga National Park
Year: 2015
State of conservation reports:
2015 Virunga National Park
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