the richtersveld cultural and botanical landscape - SAHRA

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Richtersveld Cultural and Botanical Landscape World Heritage Site Nomination 83 newly inscripted Madriu-Perafita-Claror Valley, one finds that the people of both areas have survived many social and economic changes which have challenged their ways of life. In fact, most of the mentioned sites represent the last pockets of traditional cultures in Hungary, Sweden, France, Spain and, indeed, South Africa, where, just as these European cultures were able to survive massive social pressures, the Namas - by virtue of the fact of living in so desolate a region - were able to emerge from colonialism and institutionalized racism under the Apartheid government with their culture in tact, even if continually threatened. From a point of view of natural attributes, five sites can be compared to the Richtersveld. Clearly, the Cape Floral Kingdom has important similarities with the Succulent Karoo biome of the Richtersveld. Both biomes are distinctly Southern African, with vegetation existing in no other place on earth. Both, as recognized Biodiversity Hotspots, are extraordinary in regards to their plant life. However, the Richtersveld is a desert, and in biological terms, the richest desert on earth. Although the fynbos vegetation can boast a higher number of species than the Succulent Karoo, it is arguably more remarkable that the Succulent Karoo holds as many species as it does being an arid environment. Additionally, the Succulent Karoo is arguably more unusual in that there is no other truly similar vegetation type and environment, whereas the fynbos, despite its high levels of endemism, has close similarities to the kwongan vegetation of Southwestern Australia. If one compares the Richtersveld to other winter-rainfall deserts, such as Morocco’s southern coastline, Chile’s southern Atacama and Baja California of Mexico, just the Namaqualand portion alone (with the Richtersveld as a core) of the Succulent Karoo has between four and six times as many species of plants. The other deserts are also lacking the great numbers of leafy succulents and bulbs which enable the Succulent Karoo desert to provide its impressive displays of blooming flowers. These other similar-sized winter-rainfall deserts, despite some interesting species, consist of mainly stem succulent plants such as cacti and euphorbia and stapeliads, and leafy shrubs, but lack the unique diversity of miniature, ‘contracted’ plants, such as tylecodons, crassulas and lithops which exist in the Succulent Karoo’s shallow quartz-stone fields and gravel plains and which give the area a habitat type and appearance unique to the biome.
Richtersveld Cultural and Botanical Landscape World Heritage Site Nomination 84 Looking within the Succulent Karoo biome itself, there are strong cases for the Richtersveld as its richest component, often described as “a hotspot within a hotspot”. No other part of the Succulent Karoo can boast even near the numbers of succulent plant species as the Richtersveld’s Gariep Centre of Plant Diversity, which as just part of the greater Succulent Karoo Biome, has more succulent species at 448 than the entire Fynbos Biome’s 435. The Gariep Centre also boasts more succulent species than all other Centres of Plant Diversity, such as the Little Karoo, Knersvlakte and Hantam-Roggeveld. The Gariep Centre also has the highest number of total plant species (2700) in the biome, the highest endemism rate of total plant species (20.7%), and the highest number of Genera (27). Comparison between Southern African Floral Regions and Endemism Centres with regard to succulent species numbers and endemism % Region / Centre of Endemism Species / infraspecific taxa % of endemics 1. Succulent Karoo Region (Entire) 1,075 53.8% Gariep Centre 448 80% Knersvlakte Centre 111 74% Little Karoo Centre 203 81% Worcester-Robertson Karoo Centre 89 77.4% Hantam-Roggeveld Centre 58 23.2% 2. Cape Floristic Region 435 7.8% 3. Maputaland-Pondoland Region 270 15% 4. Albany Centre 364 60.6% 5. Drakensburg Alpine Centre 20 5% 6. Barberton Centre 22 27.5% 7. Wolkberg Centre 25 19.2% 8. Sekhukhuneland Centre 15 15% 9. Soutpansberg Centre 21 46.6% 10. Chimanimani-Nyanga Centre 23 23% 11. Great Dyke Centre 5 20% 12. Kaokoveld Centre 73 45.6% 13. Griqualand Centre 13 32.5%
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