the richtersveld cultural and botanical landscape - SAHRA

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Richtersveld Cultural and Botanical Landscape World Heritage Site Nomination 75 The Richtersveld Community Conservancy is a unique, threatened, and globally significant cultural landscape. In Africa in particular, there is little recognition of traditional cultural landscapes, architecture and the age-old pastoral way of life. Transhumance has been identified as an element underrepresented in the World Heritage list, and it is transhumance which perhaps best describes the pastoral way of the life which still endures amongst the Nama people. The ICOMOS analysis, “The World Heritage List: Filling the Gaps – an Action Plan for the Future (February, 2004) supports this argument in stating, “Surviving nomadic pastoralist cultures are currently represented by a single inscription, that of the Laponian Area (Sweden)…” Africa – home to some of the most diverse and widespread pastoral societies on earth – has not one site. More generally, the analysis highlights that African peoples seem to come up short in comparison to Europeans and others. Additionally, The Expert Meetings on Global Strategy (1994-1998) stated that: “all living cultures – and especially “traditional” ones – with their depth, their wealth, their complexity, and their diverse relationships with their environment, figured very little on the list…” Africa, a continent with more ethnic groups and languages than any other, has only a handful of the occurrences on the list of cultural sites (as opposed to almost 50% by Europe), and Southern Africa has relatively few cultural sites which is astonishing for a region with such cultural diversity. The ICOMOS analysis highlighted certain areas as having high potential to fill the gaps in the World Heritage list. These include “Human Coexistence with the Land” (movement of people (nomadism); settlement; modes of subsistence; and technological evolution) and “Human Beings in Society” (human interaction; cultural coexistence; spirituality; and creative expression). It can well be argued that the Richtersveld has all of these factors. It represents the “movement of people” through the transhumance existence of seasonal movement of livestock and home between grazing areas. It represents “settlement and technological evolution” through the enduring complex design of the |haru oms architecture. It represents “modes of subsistence” through two thousand years of surviving from livestock raising. It represent “human interaction and cultural coexistence” through the relationship between the Nama and the Bosluis Basters, a historically disadvantaged group “discarded” by the Apartheid Government to survive in the remote land of the Nama. It represents “spirituality and creative expression” as
Richtersveld Cultural and Botanical Landscape World Heritage Site Nomination 76 etched in the petroglyphs, as demonstrated in ancient Nama graves throughout the Richtersveld Community Conservancy, as continuing in the oral tradition of specific locations, such as the fabled sinkhole called Wondergat. 3.a Criteria (using Operational Guidelines of February 2005) Cultural criterion (iv) The landscape of seasonal movements spanning back millennia illustrates effectively a period of time when the environment, the climate and the seasons determined largely where humans lived and how they lived. This has not changed for the Nama who today must move home, livestock and family from high-country winter grazing areas to lower summer areas. The ancient gravesites, relicts of former livestock posts, migration trails, wells, petroglyphs and legend and oral myth attached to mountains, sinkholes, springs and, not least, the !Gariep (Orange) River all make up a cultural landscape that has been active for two thousand years. And this way of life extends back into the history of most people on earth before humans were able to take better control over their environment. Cultural Landscape Criterion Annex 3 of the Operational Guidelines, describing the inherent human and environmental relationships in Cultural Landscapes reads: “The continued existence of traditional forms of land-use supports biological diversity in many regions of the world. The protection of traditional landscapes is therefore helpful in maintaining biological diversity.” The Cultural Landscape of the Richtersveld demonstrates well the ability of the Nama to maintain traditional pastoral livelihoods without adversely impacting on the environment. This is especially important, perhaps more so than in other regions, in light of the status of their environment as a Biodiversity Hotspot. With Nama habitation and pastoralism spanning back two thousand years and the Richtersveld Community Conservancy regarded as a refuge for the Succulent Karoo flora, this is
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the richtersveld cultural and botanical landscape - SAHRA

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