Press Release on the Selous Game Reserve (United Republic of Tanzania) World Heritage property

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), being made aware of the 8 October 2014 article by The Guardian Reporter (ref: http://www.ippmedia.com/frontend/index.php?l=72984) entitled “Tanzania due to harness more hydroelectric power potential”, erroneously stating that “-- the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has already endorsed all the projects.”

Would like to reiterate the following:

The World Heritage Committee at its 36th (Saint-Petersburg, 2012), 37th (Phnom Penh, 2013) and 38^th (Doha, 2014) sessions respectively expressed its concern on the potential impact of the Stiegler’s Gorge dam project on the Outstanding Universal Value of the property and urged the State Party not to undertake any development activities within Selous Game Reserve and its buffer zone without prior approval of the World Heritage Committee in accordance with paragraph 172 of the Operational Guidelines.

At its 38^th Session (Decision 38 COM 7B.95, http://whc.unesco.org/en/decisions/6081), the Committee further requested the State Party of the United Republic of Tanzania to implement the recommendations of the 2013 joint World Heritage Centre/International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) reactive monitoring mission to the Selous Game Reserve World Heritage property, which built upon earlier mission recommendations, in particular to:

“-- Develop a strategy to manage the property at the wider landscape level of the ‘Larger Selous Ecosystem’ and formalize this landscape level management through the establishment of a buffer zone and potentially strategic additions to the property,

Clarify the status of planning and decision-making of the Stiegler's Gorge Dam project and ensure a comprehensive understanding of the impacts, risks, costs, benefits, and alternatives as a basis for any decision-making regarding the project both in the form of an in-depth EIA and the comprehensive Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) noted below, taking into account the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the property.--“

In the same Decision, the Committee also welcomed “-- the willingness of the State Party to address the multiple threats to the OUV of the property, and to undertake a SEA for the Larger Selous Ecosystem, and recalls that this SEA should comprehensively identify the cumulative impacts of the various existing and proposed developments both within the property and in important wildlife corridors and dispersal areas that are critical for maintaining the OUV and integrity of the property, including but not limited to the Selous-Niassa Corridor, in conformity with the IUCN’s World Heritage Advice Note on Environmental Impact Assessment”.

The World Heritage Centre is expecting to receive by 1 February 2015, an updated report on the state of conservation of the Selous Game Reserve World Heritage property, including an executive summary and a proposal for the Desired state of conservation for the removal of the property from the List of World Heritage in Danger, including a timeframe for achieving it, for examination by the World Heritage Committee at its 39th session in 2015, to be held in Bonn, Germany.  Until then, the present statement remains the only valid position of UNESCO.

For more information, please contact Mr Edmond Moukala, acting Chief of the Africa Unit of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, e.moukala@unesco.org or Ms Zulmira Rodrigues, Director of the UNESCO Office in Dar es Salaam, z.rodrigues@unesco.org