A vulnerable river ensemble: UNESCO's own conservation record

UNESCO's dossier describes Kunta Kinteh Island's fort as having remained a ruin since 1779, with only limited efforts to consolidate it or slow sea erosion, and it calls the surviving fabric extremely vulnerable to that erosion. Fort Bullen, across the river mouth, faces a comparable problem: the dossier records its seaward wall suffering erosion, with sections that had collapsed and twenty metres rebuilt in 2000. ^{[river-unesco-kinteh]}

Conservation has not been uniform across the ensemble. The dossier records the CFAO building in Albreda as restored with sea defence works, the Maurel Freres building in Juffureh as restored in 1996 and in good condition, and the Six-Gun Battery on the Banjul side as also well conserved, while the Portuguese Chapel and the San Domingo ruins needed reinforcement of endangered sections around 2000. Quarterly physical inspections by the National Centre for Arts and Culture, funded mainly from entrance fees, are the dossier's own description of ongoing monitoring across the group. ^{[river-unesco-kinteh]}