The Victoria Falls World Heritage Site (UNESCO, 2023)
The World Heritage Committee have released the provisional agenda and draft documents relating to their forthcoming 45th Session to be held at Riyadh in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia over 10th-25th September 2023. The documents are available online on the UNESCO website here.
Among the reports is an update on the State of Conservation for the Victoria Falls World Heritage Site (WHC.23.45.COM.7BAdd, pages 16-19 - we've pulled the text from this rather lengthy document into a separate pdf available to download here).
The update includes the following information relating to the development of new tourism facilities within the Highly Ecologically Sensitive Zone (HESZ) of the Site, and which prevents all new infrastructure developments in these areas.
"In a letter dated 14 March 2023, the World Heritage Centre transmitted to the State Party of Zimbabwe, for comments, third-party information reporting the issuing of a permit for two commercial sites for tourism developments within areas of the property that are recognized as highly sensitive zones according to the JIMP [Joint Integrated Management Plan]. No response has been received from the State Party at the time of writing this report." (World Heritage Committee, 2023, p.17)
The Committee appear to have therefore regrettably missed an opportunity to ensure a response to this issue in time for their 45th Session.
The update continues:
"The property continues to face serious threats from individual and cumulative infrastructure developments within the property, its buffer zone and its wider setting... Contrary to the Committee’s request to the State Party of Zambia to halt the Mosi-oa-Tunya Livingstone Resort Hotel development, construction has continued, and the 2022 Reactive Monitoring mission identified numerous shortfalls and non-compliance with World Heritage status, the JIMP, and the State Party’s own legal regulations. Other proposed developments in the property and its buffer zone have not been assessed as to their cumulative impacts on the OUV [Outstanding Universal Values], in response to which the mission has recommended the States Parties produce a blueprint to guide strategic level planning. It should be submitted to the World Heritage Centre, together with the individual ESIAs [Environmental and Social Impact Assessments] of the developments proposed for approval, prior to authorizing any further projects." (World Heritage Committee, 2023, p.17-8)
The update concludes by requesting a revised State of Conservation Report to be presented to the Committee by 1 February 2024 in advance of the Committee's 46th Session to be held later that year.
We believe the combined mismanagement and increasing tourism development pressures highlighted over the last few years raise serious concerns over the future viability of the World Heritage Site with serious negative impacts on the Site’s Outstanding Universal Values already caused by recent developments along Zambezi Drive (the 'rock pool' and Baines Restaurant). While by the Committee’s own admission the monitoring mission “identified numerous shortfalls and non-compliance with World Heritage status” (World Heritage Committee, 2023) it appears that the Committee is now itself in danger of not acting sufficiently to address these concerns.
The management of Site is in urgent need of detailed review and increasing scrutiny is needed to monitor and mitigate the negative impacts and pressures affecting the Site - and in which the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority appear themselves to be complicit in authorising and agreeing concession licenses within the HESZ. Failure to react strongly to the current wave of developments which threaten the Site will be seen as a green light to the State Parties to continue the commercial development, and ecological degradation, of the Site.
Draft Decision
We believe the Committee’s draft decisions, published in advance of the 45th Session of the World Heritage Committee to be held in September 2023 are inadequate to address the serious and urgent problems facing the Site from developments which have already been authorised by Park Authorities, especially on the southern, Zimbabwean, side of the property. The wording of decision point 5 is particularly concerning:
“5. Reiterates its concern over the increasing pressure from tourism infrastructure within and around the property, exacerbated by the absence of strategic planning and also requests the States Parties to produce a blueprint for infrastructure development in and around the property that ensures the protection of the property’s OUV, and to not approve any further developments until the blueprint is finalized and submitted to the World Heritage Centre, together with an impact assessment for each proposed project in accordance with the new Guidance and Toolkit for Impact Assessments in a World Heritage Context, prior to taking any decision that is difficult to reverse;” (World Heritage Committee, 2023, p.19)
The wording of the current draft request for the ‘blueprint’ overview “together with the individual ESIAs of the developments proposed for approval, prior to authorizing any further projects” appears to do nothing in terms of addressing the current wave of unsuitable developments within the WHS HESZ and identified in this report, which have already been authorised and agreed between the Zimbabwean National Park Authority and private tourism operators.
After the delays faced by the monitoring mission to the Site, originally requested in 2019 and only undertaken in February 2022, and the subsequent delays in the dates for the 45th Session, there is an urgent and pressing need for the Committee to further investigate and consider its response to the State Parties, and we urge the Committee to request an urgent review of all current development proposals within the World Heritage Site and surrounding Buffer Zone, and request that all current as well as further/future developments are immediately suspended pending submission and agreement of the detailed ‘blueprint’ and ESIA documents requested by the Committee.
We further believe that the requested suspension on all new tourism developments and activities within the WHS should be maintained until an adequate (and IUCN/UNESCO approved) management plan for the Victoria Falls and Zambezi National Parks is in place and a new Joint Integrated Management Plan for the Site agreed, including addressing the management of the transport corridor and other areas within the WHS and surrounding Buffer Zone which are outside of National Park control an ignored in current reports.
It should be noted the Committee has already missed the opportunity to influence some of these developments, which are now already completed and operational (including the Mosi-oa-Tunya Resort in Zambia, opened in December 2022, and Baines Restaurant in Zimbabwe, opened in mid-2023), and risks that others which are in advanced stages of planning and preparation (for example the riverside 'tree lodge' development in Zimbabwe among many others) will be completed before it has time to consider them.
The Committee must act now to influence these developments and put a stop to the continued degradation and fragmentation of the Site. A clear response to the two already constructed and operational developments is also needed from the Committee.
Wider Picture
The Victoria Falls World Heritage Site is not alone in being ignored by the World Heritage Committee. Out of eight sites which received monitoring missions during 2022 and 2023 (four of which were in Africa), none have made the draft agenda for discussion. So far only eight sites (including the Okavango Delta, Botswana) have been 'opened' for discussion during the 15 day conference, although there is a long list of sites with many serious issues urgently needing the attention of the Committee - including the flagship sites such as the Acropolis of Athens (Greece), Ngorongoro Conservation Area (Tanzania), Historic Cairo (Egypt), Stonehenge (England) and the Doñana National Park (Spain).
More
Please sign the online petition against the current wave of tourism development proposals which threaten the Victoria Falls World Heritage Site.
Download the 2023 World Heritage Watch Report for more information and background on World Heritage Sites under threat.
References
UNESCO (2023) Mosi-oa-Tunya/Victoria Falls Reactive Monitoring Mission (February 2022) Final Report. [Available to download from the UNESCO World Heritage website here.]
World Heritage Committee (2023) Item 7B of the Provisional Agenda: State of conservation of properties inscribed on the World Heritage List (WHC.23.45.COM.7BAdd) p.16-9.
