the richtersveld cultural and botanical landscape - SAHRA

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Richtersveld Cultural and Botanical Landscape World Heritage Site Nomination 87 the coastal vegetation, which in the future can be included in the forthcoming creation of the Richtersveld Coastal Reserve, which was identified and written into the 2005 Land Use Plan of the Coastal Areas by the Sida !hub Community Property Association (CPA). Additionally, the Conservancy holds the largest known population of Aloe pillansii. In regards to the Operational Guidelines’ stipulation of freedom of adverse effects of development or neglect, there are no existing developments in the 160,000 ha Conservancy other than a small guesthouse and the seasonal livestock posts of the Nama and Bosluis Baster people. In regards to risk of neglect, the Conservancy lands have been cared for through sustainable pastoralism for two thousand years by the Nama and Bosluis Baster people of the Richtersveld. It was known long ago by them that to destroy or damage the environment would be to destroy their own livelihoods. The Nara Document on Authenticity was used in this analysis of the integrity and authenticity of the Richtersveld Community Conservancy as a justifiable cultural World Heritage Site. Historically it has been the traditional home of the Nama people extending back to their earliest arrival out of what is now Botswana, as hunter gathers. Its remoteness and the lack of appeal, water and arable land prevented it from being overtaken by larger and stronger communities of Bantu Africans and later white settlers. During the Apartheid era, the land that is now the Richtersveld Community Conservancy was declared a non-white area and a socalled “coloured reserve”. This not only prevented white people from moving in, but also prevented Nama and Bosluis Baster people from moving out and dispersing into other areas of the country. This policy was discriminate and had severe economic and social impacts on many of the people of the Richtersveld region, but also resulted in the Conservancy area being for all practical purposes free of white settlers. In this regard, the Conservancy lands continued to exist in much of the same way that it had for several generations. The seasonal patterns of the Nama pastoralists have remained largely the same in the Conservancy area and no permanent settlements have been erected in the Conservancy area. The dynamic nature of Nama transhumance has been
Richtersveld Cultural and Botanical Landscape World Heritage Site Nomination 88 preserved and is evident in the scattered seasonal livestock posts throughout the site. Additionally, the traditional rushmat domed hut, called the |haru oms is an authentic design developed exclusively by the Nama people, although in some cases copied by other tribes in Namibia and South Africa due to its practical design. Traditional |haru oms are today rare, and can only be found in the remote areas. The Richtersveld Community Conservancy and the town of Kuboes along its border represent one of the last places on earth in which Nama people reside in |haru oms. What was formerly a widespread form of abode, is now an endangered structure confined to the farthest reaches of the mountains. The design of the |haru oms has been studied and its status assessed by the Northern Cape Province’s Department of Sport, Arts and Culture in 2001, the document for which is included in Appendix C. The Richtersveld exists in a region which has been affected both culturally and naturally by several social, biophysical and economic factors. Of the greatest factors has been large scale open cast diamond mining which has defaced a significant part of the region. The cultural impacts too have been great creating over several decades a dependence on mining jobs with little alternatives for jobs or improvements to lives. Diamond mining, with historically little environmental regulation or regard for local communities, has left its scar on much of the northwest coast of South Africa. However, the Richtersveld Community Conservancy has never been mined for diamonds. It is also important to point out that it will never be mined. Not only is mining forbidden in Conservancy regulations and in contrast to all local and regional land use policies such as all versions of Integrated Development Plans, but the Conservancy also lies outside of the diamond deposit areas of the region. Mining of diamonds in the region is concentrated in areas where ancient oxbows of the Orange River existed. No such areas exist in the Conservancy – instead its stretches of the Orange River are comprised of deep canyons. Additionally, the Conservancy lands have been studied and assessed in the past for diamonds and it was determined that no deposits exist in the Conservancy area. In short, geophysically, the Conservancy is not diamond country. As a result, the damage associated with mines in other parts of the region are absent from the
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