the richtersveld cultural and botanical landscape - SAHRA

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Richtersveld Cultural and Botanical Landscape World Heritage Site Nomination 15 2. Description 2.a. Description of Property General Description of the Property The Richtersveld Community Conservancy is South Africa’s first communal protected area and its most remote wilderness. It is a cold mountain desert of enormous scenic value and diverse and vivid geological formations of immense value to the heritage of the country and continent of Africa. However, the attributes which are of outstanding universal value and the focus of this nomination are its high diversity and endemism of plants, particularly succulents; its unique Nama culture, architecture and traditions; and its rich cultural landscape of semi-nomadic pastoralism representing one of the last transhumance 1 cultures left in Southern Africa. 2.a.i. Location Core Area: Richtersveld Community Conservancy The Richtersveld Community Conservancy (hereafter referred to as ‘the Conservancy’) is a 160,000 hectare communally-owned and managed protected area located in the northwestern corner of South Africa along the border of Namibia. This is South Africa’s most sparsely populated and vastest unspoilt wilderness region. The Conservancy is situated in the mountainous region south of the clearly visible giant bend of the Lower Orange River (known as the !Gariep River 2 before colonial times, and a name that is progressively being re-instated) on 1 The term, “transhumance” is used throughout the document to describe the lifestyles and livelihood patterns of the Nama herders. Semi-nomadic pastoralism can also be used to describe the seasonal movements of the Nama people with their herds of goats and sheep. However, the set seasonal patterns associated with the Nama movements between summer and winter grazing areas and the geographic scale associated with their movements are felt by the authors as best termed as transhumance. 2 ‘!Gariep’ means ‘Big River’ in the language of the Nama, the first people who have settled in the region thousands of years ago. However, for the purposes of this document the name Orange River is used as that is the name that reviewers will find on maps available anywhere in the world.
Richtersveld Cultural and Botanical Landscape World Heritage Site Nomination 16 its last stretch before it reaches the Atlantic Ocean. The Conservancy falls under the local governmental jurisdictions of the Richtersveld Municipality, the district jurisdiction known as the Namakwa District and finally, the Northern Cape Provincial Government. There are seven towns in the entire municipal area, and two of the smallest towns (Kuboes and Eksteenfontein) border the Conservancy on the west and south, respectively. Access to the Conservancy is on dirt roads, and approximately two hours from the main towns of the region: Port Nolloth (municipal headquarters) in the west and Springbok to the southeast. The interior part of the Conservancy is accessible by remote dirt roads and tracks, many of them only suitable for 4x4 vehicles. The landscape is rugged and many parts of the Conservancy remain unreachable by vehicle and in many places tracks have become impassable. The rugged landscape, remoteness from population centres and the absence of diamond deposits are what have preserved the Conservancy as South Africa’s most remote wilderness. The only people living in the Conservancy are semi-nomadic sheep and goat herders who live a transhumance lifestyle of moving with herds in between seasonal grazing areas. Please refer to the Map of the Richtersveld Community Conservancy (Map 3) and Topographical Map (Map 2) in Appendix A. 2.a.ii. Buffer Zones The Conservancy is directly bordered by the following areas: Northern Buffer: Richtersveld National Park The Richtersveld National Park (RNP) boundary serves as the long northern border of the Conservancy. The boundary between the two is the most inaccessible area for both the RNP and the Conservancy and a largely impenetrable area of steep and rugged mountains. There are no roads into the area and it is used occasionally by semi-nomadic herders.
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the richtersveld cultural and botanical landscape - SAHRA

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