Decision 41 COM 7B.19

Sangha Trinational (Cameron / Central African Republic / Congo) (N 1380rev)

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC/17/41.COM/7B,
2. Recalling Decisions 36 COM 8B.8 and 39 COM 7B.2, adopted at its 36th (Saint-Petersburg, 2012) and 39th (Bonn, 2015) sessions respectively,
3. Commends the States Parties for intensifying their efforts to coordinate anti-poaching efforts, notes, however, that poaching of large mammals and consumption of bushmeat is on the increase, and requests the States Parties to further strengthen their efforts to combat environmental crime and for the seizure of weapons of war within the perimeter of the property, as well as the awareness-raising of judicial authorities in this field;
4. Welcomes the efforts of the States Parties of Cameroon and the Republic of Congo respectively to secure the right of Baka to exploit their resource in areas identified within the property and to promote the sustainable exploitation of fisheries resources, targeting in particular women and Indigenous peoples;
5. Also welcomes the fact that no mining exploration license now exists in the buffer zone of the property, but notes with concern that gold-mining and other illegal activities, such as the advance of the agricultural frontier, harvesting of non-timber forest products and cutting down of timber are observed in the buffer zone of the property and also requests States Parties to:
   1. Strengthen their efforts to eradicate illegal mining activities in the territory of the property and in its buffer zone,
   2. Design and implement a plan for the ecological restoration of sites degraded by any illegal activity;
6. Appreciates the establishment by the Dzanga-Sangha Protected Areas (APDS) of a system for monitoring and controlling the legality of forestry operations of SINFOCAM (Central African Forestry and Industrial Development Corporation) and STBC (Wood Processing Company in Central African Republic), and recalling also that the allocation of these concessions in the buffer zone of the property presents certain risks to its integrity, further calls upon the States Parties to require that all forest concessions in the buffer zone of the property shall be certified in order to minimize the seriousness of the potential threats to the property;
7. Reiterates its request to the States Parties concerned to carry out a detailed Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) in order to identify potential impacts on the OUV of the property of the Bangui Road Project, in accordance with the IUCN World Heritage advice note on Environmental Assessments and to submit it to the World Heritage Centre for examination by IUCN before approving the project;
8. Further requests the States Parties to implement all the recommendations of the 2016 joint World Heritage Centre/IUCN Reactive Monitoring mission;
9. Finally requests the States Parties to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 December 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 43rd session in 2019.