UNESCO: Golf on Srđ Must Be at Least 50 Meters from the Edge of the Hill

The UNESCO World Heritage Committee adopted decisions on the State of Conservation of the Old Town of Dubrovnik and the property Stećci-medieval tombstones at its 42nd session, and accepted the decision on the state of conservation and further guidelines regarding the protection of the universal values of the Plitvice Lakes National Park area.

The Committee’s session, held in Manama, Bahrain from June 24 to July 4, was attended by representatives of the Croatian Ministry of Culture, Assistant Minister Davor Trupković and Secretary General of the Croatian Commission for UNESCO and Head of the UNESCO Service Rut Carek, and the most important points discussed related to Dubrovnik, Stećci-medieval tombstones, and the Plitvice Lakes National Park.

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The Ministry of Culture has coordinated with the City of Dubrovnik and its services in the preparation of a series of expert bases and documents that are an integral part of the comprehensive Report submitted by the Ministry of Culture to the working bodies of UNESCO ahead of the session in Bahrain.

At the World Heritage Committee session, the Decision on the State of Conservation of the Old Town of Dubrovnik was adopted on June 28, which stated that the Committee noted positive steps for the repair of inappropriate interventions on the walls of the Old Town of Dubrovnik during the 1950s and 1960s and received information on the completion of the preparatory phase of the Management Plan, according to the Ministry of Culture’s statement.

In accordance with ICOMOS guidelines, the Committee recommended the urgent preparation of a Management Plan for the property and the contact zone along with the development of a tourism strategy and management of cruise tourism. The tourism strategy for the City of Dubrovnik was completed and adopted by the City Council just before the 42nd session of the Committee, which the Ministry of Culture reported to the World Heritage Centre. The World Heritage Committee states that the sewage system needs to be analyzed through a project and possible preparation of an Environmental Impact Study (HIA).

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Following plans related to the construction of a golf course on Srđ, the Committee believes that the project needs to be fully aligned with the HIA and ensure that the golf course is at least 50 meters away from the edge of Srđ.

The World Heritage Committee welcomed the decision to halt the Komarda project and postpone the construction of the Bosanka 2 project, where any further possibility of construction will be reconsidered through the HIA.

After the visit of the Monitoring Mission to the City of Dubrovnik in November 2015, during which the possible expansion of the contact zone was discussed, a Working Group was established that prepared a proposal for the expansion of the contact zone to ensure effective protection and management of the cultural property. The Ministry of Culture, with its expert services and a whole team of experts together with the City of Dubrovnik, worked on the preparation of comprehensive documentation for the future contact zone during 2017 and 2018, which was reduced from the initial proposal of the reactive monitoring mission.

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Based on numerous interdisciplinary bases and analyses of the state of impact on heritage, the working bodies of UNESCO accepted the expert argumentation and methodological framework that the Republic of Croatia applied in the preparation of the comprehensive requested documentation, and gave a positive recommendation to the World Heritage Committee to accept the proposed expansion of the contact zone, which the Committee adopted on July 2.

Furthermore, at the World Heritage Committee session, a decision was also adopted on the proposed steps regarding the state of conservation of the property Stećci-medieval tombstones, which were successfully inscribed as a multinational nomination on the UNESCO List in 2016.

Following the recommendations of the Monitoring Mission that visited the Plitvice Lakes in 2017, the Committee also accepted the decision on the state of conservation and further guidelines that the Republic of Croatia must undertake for the systematic protection of the exceptional universal values of the Plitvice Lakes National Park area, it is added in the statement.