Kathmandu Valley (Nepal)
The Secretariat recalled the concern raised over the state of conservation of the Kathmandu Valley World Heritage site and the debate during the seventeenth session of the Committee in December 1993 and the Bureau at its eighteenth session in July 1994 on the possible inscription of the site on the List of World Heritage in Danger and the delisting of certain parts of the site damaged by uncontrolled development. The 16-point recommendation of the UNESCO/ICOMOS Review Mission of November 1993 and the pledge made by' the Representative of His Majesty's Government at the seventeenth session of the Committee to follow-up on these recommendations were also recalled.
The Committee was presented with a monitoring report prepared by the Department of Archaeology on progress made in the follow-up activities. In the absence of the Nepali Representative, the Secretariat summarized the main points of this report.
Actions reported include:
The Secretariat also reported on the Nepal/UNESCO/ICOMOS strategy meeting held in mid-November 1994 immediately following the Kathmandu Valley International Campaign Review Meeting and drew the attention of the Committee to the action plan to be coordinated by an inter-ministerial task force which the representatives of the various ministries to the strategy meeting agreed to establish. This action plan contained in the monitoring report includes, inter alia, the development and publication of guidelines on building and conservation practice with graphic illustrations and establishment of a development control unit in the Department of Archaeology to work closely with the municipalities and town development committees.
The Committee, having noted the efforts being made by the Nepali authorities to rectify the damage caused to the Kathmandu Valley, requests UNESCO to support the Government of Nepal in strengthening the mechanism of coordination of all international conservation activities, whether bilateral or multilateral, especially with regard to the method of conservation to be applied. The Committee also calls upon the Government of Nepal to take into consideration, the recommendations made by the joint UNESCO/ICOMOS mission of November 1993 in ensuring the protection of the World Heritage site from uncontrolled development, especially by adopting a more stringent policy in the granting of demolition and construction permits and other landuse authorization in both the core area and the buffer zone. Recognizing the limited national resources in carrying out the variety of required activities, the Committee requests UNESCO to assist the Nepali authorities in preparing a package of projects to seek international donor support including the documentation of the World Heritage site, to be undertaken as a priority. In this connection, the Committee discussed the advantages of the Kathmandu Valley being put on the List of World Heritage in Danger to draw the priority attention of the international community and urged the Government of Nepal to reconsider this option.