Keep Victoria
Falls Wild, 9th July 2026 (revised 12th July 2026)
UNESCO World Heritage Committee Draft Decision text published ahead of 48th Session...
List of outstanding and unresolved issues grows as State Parties fail to respond to World Heritage Centre requests...
Committee yet again fails to address recent and proposed tourism developments within Site's 'No New Development' Zone...
Yet further delays to finalisation of new Joint Management Plan - five years and counting to develop draft a management plan covering a five year period.
UNESCO have released the
draft papers and reports to be considered by the World Heritage Committee at
its forthcoming 48th session, to be held at Busan, Republic of Korea over 19th-29th
July 2026. The documents are available to download from the UNESCO website
here.
The World Heritage
Centre's overview and the Committee's draft Decision text relating to the
Mosi-oa-Tunya/Victoria Falls World Heritage Site is published within document WHC/26/48.COM/7B.Add
(UNESCO/World Heritage Centre, 2026), and presented below in full for ease of reference.
The Committee is due to
consider its response to the latest State of Conservation report and draft Joint
Management Plan for the World Heritage Site, submitted in December 2025. We
previously reported on the many issues of concern within these documents in a Special Report in January this year (Keep Victoria Falls Wild, January 2026).
Mosi-oa-Tunya Resort Development (Zambia)
Under 'Current
Conservation Issues' the text highlights lack of clarification of the status of mitigation
measures, originally requested in 2024, relating to the Mosi-oa-Tunya Resort
development in Zambia, constructed in 2021/2 "without fully meeting all the approval conditions set out in the
Zambian Environmental Management Authority (ZEMA) Decision Letter" and currently managed as the Radisson Blu Mosi-oa-Tunya Resort.
"While it is reported that the completed
construction of the Mosi-oa-Tunya Livingstone Resort Hotel does not adversely
affect the OUV of the property, the 2022 Reactive Monitoring mission identified
numerous shortfalls and non-compliance with the World Heritage status of the
property, including differing interpretations of zoning terms. Given that the
project has already been completed, and in light of the concerns raised by the
mission and in previous Committee Decisions, the information provided by the
State Party does not demonstrate whether the mitigation measures previously
reported are being implemented to adequately address negative impacts on the
property’s OUV. The development of a comprehensive Environmental and Social
Management Plan (ESMP), as recommended in the 2022 reactive monitoring mission,
and already mentioned in the report submitted by the States Parties in February
2024, is even more urgent to ensure that the mitigation and monitoring
initiatives put in place also consider the visual integrity and cumulative
effects of the project. In addition, the reported review of the 2007 Zonation
Scheme should be expedited to clarify the inconsistencies and refine the
associated permissible-use thresholds."
In summary this issue has not been progressed, by either the World Heritage Centre or the State Party, since the Committee's 2024 decision and request for mitigation measures. This development was pushed ahead without notification or disclosure to UNESCO during 2021, and continued despite requests from the World Heritage Centre to suspend development pending review of the proposals. A subsequent IUCN/UNESCO Reactive Monitoring Mission Report highlighted several significant issues of non-compliance with national planning approvals (UNESCO/World Heritage Centre, 2023a).
Baines Restaurant and Cataract Island Tours (Zimbabwe)
The text also notes no
update has yet to be given in relation to the launch of tours to Cataract Island in 2022 and development of the Baines Restaurant over 2022/3. The Committee's belated draft
reaction to these developments, following up on an unanswered
request for further details from the World Heritage Centre on 14th March 2023
(UNESCO/World Heritage Centre, 2023b), is to merely state:
"Finally, no update was provided regarding the
third-party concerns related to permits for two commercial tourism developments
in highly sensitive zones of the property, notably Cataract Island
and its riverine rainforest on the Zimbabwean component, which remain of great
concern, particularly given available online information indicating that they
have already commenced operations."
So nothing has been progressed on this key issue, by either party, since the sending of a letter by the World Heritage Committee in March 2023. Tours to Cataract Island were launched in 2021 without notification or disclosure to UNESCO, despite a previous request from the World Heritage Committee for a full EIA disclosure in 2017 in specific reference to this proposal (World Heritage Committee,
2017).
The area of the Baines development has been protected against development since 1904 with the formation of the Victoria Falls Park. It was declared a National Monument in 1937 in recognition of its cultural heritage significance and protected as a National Park in 1952 in recognition of its conservation and environmental importance. In the mid-1970s it was part of an area declared 'permanently protected' against all new development under the Victoria Falls Outline Plan, before being designated as a World Heritage Site in 1989. Under the 2007 and 2016 joint management plans the area was declared part of the 'Highly Ecologically Sensitive Zone' (HESZ) which prevents all new development. Yet despite all these protections the development was pushed ahead during 2022, without prior notification or disclosure to UNESCO and despite a legal challenge against its development in the Zimbabwean courts (still to be heard), and has been operational since 2023 (Keep Victoria Falls Wild, September 2023; June 2025; April 2026).
The 1975 'Permanently Protected' Area, Victoria Falls
The EIA approval was
granted on the basis of the false claim that the site of the development was
within the 'Medium Ecologically Sensitive Zone' (MESZ) and a permissible
development - when it is in fact in the High Ecologically Sensitive Zone which
prevents all new development. Even if it was in the MESZ it would still not be
a permissible development.
Critically, the 1975 'permanently protected' area has also not been fully disclosed to UNESCO within the joint management plans, leaving the World Heritage Committee in the dark over the protected area (Roberts, 2026).
Further Developments (Zimbabwe)
The text also indicates the World Heritage Centre sent the State Parties a letter in September 2024 requesting information relating to proposed tourism developments within the Site's 'no new development' zone (the 'Highly Ecologically Sensitive Zone' or HESZ) - sadly not specified but believed to relate to the lease agreements, already signed with third parties, for the development of the proposed riverside 'tree lodges' and Kandahar Camp developments on the southern, Zimbabwean, side of the Falls. Not surprisingly, eighteen months later, the World Heritage Centre has not had any response to this request.
"In a letter dated 25 September 2024, the World Heritage Centre transmitted to the State Party of Zimbabwe, for comments, third-party information reporting the issuance of several commercial sites for tourism developments in contradiction to the existing JIMP within the property. No response has been received from the State Party at the time of writing this report."
So yet again, absolutely no progress on this issue since 2024.
Draft Decision Text
In its Draft Decision text
the World Heritage Committee:
"4. Expresses serious concern that cumulative
impacts from large-scale infrastructure and ever-increasing tourism development
within the property, its buffer zone, and wider setting continue to pose a
significant threat to the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the property, a
situation exacerbated, among other things, by the fact that several development
projects, which the States Parties have indicated to be at the scoping stage,
are currently underway, and invites the States Parties to provide further
details on the reported development projects that are under consideration as
soon as more information is available: ...
"6. Notes with regret that no update was
provided regarding the third-party concerns related to permits for two
commercial tourism developments in highly sensitive zones on the Zimbabwean component
of the property, noting that information available online indicates that these
developments have already commenced operation, expresses its deep concern about
the potentially irreversible impacts of these projects on the integrity and the
visual attributes of the property and urgently requests the States Parties to
report on the monitoring and mitigation measures in place to ensure that the
infrastructures do not negatively affect the OUV of the property;
"7. Also notes with regret that the construction
of the Mosi-oa-Tunya Livingstone Resort Hotel proceeded without fully meeting
approval conditions at the national level and following the Committee’s request
to halt further activities until the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment
(ESIA) had been submitted and reviewed, and reiterates its requests to the
States Parties to implement the 2022 Reactive monitoring mission recommendation
to develop a comprehensive Environmental and Social Management plan, which the
States Parties indicated in their 2024 report was already being developed,
ensuring that the mitigation measures put in place take into account the visual
integrity and cumulative effects of the project and address its negative
impacts on the property’s OUV;
"8. Also reiterates its request to the States
Parties to ensure that any project located within the property, its buffer
zone, and wider setting with potential impacts on the OUV is subject to
assessment through ESIA or HIA in conformity with the Guidance and Toolkit for
Impact Assessments in a World Heritage Context and submitted for review prior
to any decision; "
Joint Management Plan
Regarding the draft Joint
Management Plan for the site, the text raises several specific concerns to be
addressed in a revised draft, to be submitted as part of an 'interim report' by 1st February 2027, but which will not presumably be considered by the Committee until mid-2028.
"13. Finally requests the States Parties to submit
to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 February 2027, an interim report including a
copy of the updated JIMP, taking into consideration the comments outlined
above, and by 1 December 2027, 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 50th session."
The new five-year Joint Management Plan for the Site was originally due for submission by end of June 2024, with UNESCO agreeing an extension until June 2025 to allow 'finalisation' of the plan (World Heritage Committee, 2024). The new plan was subsequently submitted in December 2025, but with key sections missing (Keep Victoria Falls Wild, January 2026). It will now be at least mid-2028 before the 'final' version will be reviewed by the World Heritage Committee, meaning that it will have taken more than five years to develop a five year management plan.
Continued Failings
The State Party representatives on both
sides of the river will no doubt yet again be patting each other on the back
for successfully delaying any significant review of tourism developments at the
Site by the Committee until 2028. The World Heritage Committee's current draft decision text actually undermines long-standing conservation protections preventing development.
The failure of the State Parties to respond to previous Committee requests for further information relating to the Baines Restaurant and Cataract Island tours, and failure of the Committee to previously react to these developments, despite full particulars being supplied by 'third-parties', mean that these operations will have been operational for several years before the World Heritage Committee has even officially acknowledged their existence. The Draft Decision text response to the State Parties failure to notify the Committee in advance of this development, the flawed EIA report and subsequent EIA approvals is to merely request "the States Parties to
report on the monitoring and mitigation measures in place to ensure that the
infrastructures do not negatively affect the OUV of the property" is totally inadequate.
The Draft Decision text as it currently stands is, considering the background the Baines Restaurant development and its location, a complete capitulation. The only mitigation measure which will ensure that the Baines Restaurant development does not negatively affect the OUV of the property, or more to the point infringe existing legal protections, is its total and absolute removal from the site. The Committee should, and indeed must, call for the upholding of these protections and for the development to be removed and the area fully restored to its natural aspect. Failure to comply should result in the Site being listed on the World Heritage Site List of Sites in Danger.
The Committee's continued
failure to fully address the issues relating to this and other tourism
developments, including the proposed 'tree
lodge' development, for which plans are well advanced (the development is
reportedly to be managed under InterContinental Hotel Group's exclusive 'Six
Senses' brand), at the current 48th Session risks legitimising inappropriate
developments which threaten the future World Heritage status of the Site.
Requesting mitigation measures on a completely illegitimate development, after
it has been constructed without notification to UNESCO is not an acceptable
compromise in this example, and is already proving totally ineffective in
relation to the Mosi-oa-Tunya
Resort development in Zambia.
In failing to address and
progress these issues the World Heritage Committee is rapidly making itself a
significant part of the problem, and in turning a blind eye to these
developments is actually facilitating in the degradation of this Site, raising
serious questions and concerns over the whole 'World Heritage Site' system of
governance and overview in relation to natural heritage sites - with the
Victoria Falls rapidly becoming a prime case study example (Roberts, 2026).
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Download the full draft text relating to Mosi-oa-Tunya/Victoria Falls World Heritage Site in pdf format here.
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References
Keep Victoria
Falls Wild (September 2023) Spotlight
on Baines Restaurant. 11th September (revised). (pdf)
Keep Victoria Falls Wild
(June 2025) Special
Report on the Riverine Fringe (pdf, 1.8mb)
Keep Victoria Falls Wild
(January 2026) Reaction and
Response to 2025 State of Conservation Report and 2025-2030 Draft Joint
Integrated Management Plan (pdf, 0.6mb)
Keep Victoria Falls Wild
(April 2026) Serious
Concerns Over Management of Victoria Falls World Heritage Site (pdf,
1.3mb)
Roberts, P (2026) Paradise Lost? Conservation and Development of the Victoria Falls (1900-2025). Zambezi Book Company /
CreateSpace Independent Publishing.
State Parties
(2025) 2025 Victoria Falls/Mosi-oa-Tunya
State of Conservation Report/Joint Integrated Management Plan (pdf download [18.9 mb], opens in a new
window)
UNESCO/World Heritage Centre (2023a) Final Joint Mission
Report Mosi-oa-Tunya, Victoria Falls (Zambia/ Zimbabwe) 9-13 February 2022 (pdf
download [3.3 mb], opens in a new window)
UNESCO/World Heritage Centre (2023b)
Conservation Issues, Analysis and Conclusions (45 COM 7B.10).
UNESCO/World Heritage Centre (2026) Item 7B of the Provisional Agenda: State of Conservation of properties inscribed on the of World Heritage List (WHC/26/48.COM/7B.Add). Draft Decision text relating to the Mosi-oa-Tunya/Victoria Falls World Heritage Site.
World Heritage Committee
(2017) Decisions Adopted 41COM 7B.22, point 6.
World Heritage Committee
(2024) Decisions Adopted, 46COM 7B.60, point 5d.
.jpg "Paradise Lost? Conservation and Development of Victoria Falls")
