Decision 41 COM 7B.27

Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas (China) (N 1083bis)

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC/17/41.COM/7B,
2. Recalling Decision 39 COM 7B.9, adopted at its 39th session (Bonn, 2015),
3. Notes with appreciation the State Party’s reaffirmation of its commitment to consider the property and its buffer zone off limits with regard to mining and the closure of mining operations incompatible with this commitment, and encourages the State Party to expand its commitment so as to explicitly encompass any mineral exploration and extraction that would impact the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the property, and to rehabilitate all closed mines within the property and its buffer zones;
4. Welcomes the progress achieved so far with the development and conduct of a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), and also encourages the State Party to consolidate and broaden these efforts and to seek advice from the World Heritage Centre and IUCN, as required;
5. Commends the State Party on the conceptual recognition of poverty-environment linkages and its intentions of broadening stakeholder involvement, and further encourages the State Party to integrate the conservation of the property into wider development planning;
6. Reiterates its concern that the information provided on Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) continues to be incompatible with the scale and complexity of the planned hydropower development that may affect the property, in particular given that additional pressure is likely to result from planned water diversion programmes;
7. Notes with concern that the increasing visual transformation of all three river valleys and the impacts of the hydropower and related infrastructure projects on connectivity between component parts of the property are likely to have a direct negative impact on the property’s OUV;
8. Also reiterates its concern about the limited progress achieved with the implementation of all the recommendations of the 2013 mission, and urges again the State Party to strengthen its efforts in that regard, in consultation with the World Heritage Centre, IUCN and other partners as appropriate;
9. Requests the State Party 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.