Principles

This section discusses the principles that should underpin all impact assessments of proposed actions that could affect World Heritage properties and their Outstanding Universal Value.

1. By signing UNESCO’s Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, each State Party has pledged to protect and conserve World Heritage.

The States Parties to the Convention have an obligation to identify, protect, conserve, present and transmit to future generations their cultural and natural heritage, as well as ensuring that the heritage has a function in the life of the community. Decisions about any proposed actions should ensure the protection and conservation of the Outstanding Universal Value of their World Heritage properties. In turn, this may require protection of other heritage/conservation values. Should a World Heritage property deteriorate to the extent that it has lost those characteristics which determined its inclusion on the World Heritage List, the World Heritage Committee can ultimately decide to delete the property from the List.

World Heritage Convention Articles 4, 5 etc.

2. Impact assessment can help achieve sustainable development that is compatible with the protection and conservation of World Heritage.

States Parties have committed to protect and conserve World Heritage while optimizing its potential to contribute to sustainable development. Impact assessment can be used to evaluate the need for a proposed action, and its consequences, so that environmental, social and economic outcomes can be achieved without damaging Outstanding Universal Value. It can also identify fundamental incompatibilities between proposed actions and the primacy of protecting Outstanding Universal Value.

Operational Guidelines para. 14bis; Policy for the Integration of a Sustainable Development Perspective into the Processes of the World Heritage Convention; UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

 

3. States Parties have an obligation to notify the UNESCO World Heritage Centre in advance before considering any proposed action that may have an impact on World Heritage.

This applies to any proposed action that could reasonably be expected to affect the World Heritage property’s Outstanding Universal Value, whether in the property itself, its buffer zone or the wider setting. The World Heritage Committee or the UNESCO World Heritage Centre may also request that an impact assessment be prepared and submitted, which should be done before any irreversible decisions are taken. The impact assessment should inform the decision to proceed with a proposed action or not, so a decision should never be taken before the assessment, or influence its outcome.

Operational Guidelines para. 110, 112, 118bis, 172

 

4. Any impact assessment on a World Heritage property should address Outstanding Universal Value specifically, as well as other heritage/conservation values.

In many countries, proposed actions that may have an impact on World Heritage will be evaluated through national or other frameworks as part of an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment or Strategic Environmental Assessment. In these cases, World Heritage should be addressed specifically within the broader assessment. When a proposed action is not subject to this type of planning process, a stand-alone Heritage Impact Assessment should be carried out. In both cases, the assessment needs to clearly address potential impacts on the attributes of the property which convey Outstanding Universal Value, as well as other heritage/conservation values.

Operational Guidelines para. 110, 118bis

 

5. Impact assessment should begin at the earliest consideration of a proposed action that may impact on World Heritage, and should continue during and after the action’s development and execution.

Any decision about whether impact assessment is needed (‘screening’) should treat World Heritage properties as sensitive and valued. A precautionary approach should be taken: an impact assessment should always be carried out, unless it can be clearly shown that the proposed action will not affect the World Heritage property and its Outstanding Universal Value. This is the case even if the proposed action would have no other impacts. This allows heritage to be adequately considered in advance, and for the proposed action to be adjusted, relocated or prevented, if necessary, before commitments are made or irreversible activities occur. If the proposed action proceeds, follow-up will be needed during and after its implementation and, when appropriate, during decommissioning and recovery. Monitoring will indicate if and when further responses are needed to ensure that World Heritage is continuously protected.

Operational Guidelines para. 110, 118bis, 172

 

6. Impact assessment should be carried out by specialists with the relevant expertise.

The team of specialists carrying out impact assessments together should have relevant expertise in:

• The World Heritage Convention
• The specific heritage place (including attributes which may be affected)
• The proposed action

While some exceptions may be possible, a multisectoral, multidisciplinary and independent team will be needed.

 

7. Impact assessment should promote and encourage the effective, inclusive and equitable participation of rights-holders, including Indigenous peoples, local communities and other stakeholders.

One of the World Heritage Committee’s Strategic Objectives is to ‘enhance the role of communities in the implementation of the World Heritage Convention’. All rights-holders and other stakeholders should be identified early and consulted, to allow their views and concerns to be meaningfully considered in the assessment. The United Nations 2007 Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples also states that Indigenous peoples have the right to free, prior and informed consent before the approval of any project affecting their lands or territories and other resources. States Parties are encouraged to use human rights-based approaches, and to seek the free, prior and informed consent of rights-holders where appropriate.

• Operational Guidelines para. 12, 14bis, 39, 119
• UNESCO 2018 Policy on Engaging with Indigenous Peoples

8. Impact assessment should identify a range of reasonable alternatives, and assess their potential impacts.

Impact assessment should consider both the negative and positive impacts of a proposed action, along with any alternatives, in order to establish the most sustainable option that both protects the Outstanding Universal Value of World Heritage properties and achieves the objectives of the proposed action. These may include alternative locations, scales, processes, site layouts, operating conditions, etc. It is important that the option not to proceed is included.

Operational Guidelines para. 118bis

9. Impact assessment should evaluate broader trends and cumulative impacts.

A proposed action should be assessed within its larger context and not in isolation. Multiple projects of the same type, or a combination of different projects over time, may cause cumulative impacts which compound the impacts of an individual proposed action. Other factors, including climate change, may also make a World Heritage property vulnerable and amplify the impacts of a proposed action. The assessment therefore needs to consider other past, present or reasonably foreseeable future actions that could affect a World Heritage property. Having considered specific impacts in detail, the assessments should also include a final analysis of all potential impacts together.

Operational Guidelines para. 111d, 112

 

10. Impact assessment is an iterative, not a linear, process.

Many steps of impact assessment need to be informed by the results of other steps, and updated if necessary. For example, having assessed a proposed action’s potential negative impacts and identified possible mitigation measures, the impacts will need to be reassessed to ensure that the heritage/ conservation values remain safeguarded by the mitigation measures adopted. Similarly, the results of public consultation on a draft scoping report may lead to the reconsideration of alternatives.

Operational Guidelines para. 111c, d

 

11. Impact assessment processes should be embedded in the management system of the World Heritage property.

The impact assessment’s recommendations should inform management decisions, and in turn can draw on existing management frameworks and processes (e.g. the Statement of Outstanding Universal Value, identification of other heritage/conservation values, mapping of attributes, data collection). In a cyclical process, this can contribute to better management, monitoring, risk mitigation and feedback to improve future impact assessments.

Operational Guidelines para. 108, 110