WEDNESDAY, 29 NOVEMBER 2000: South Africa now has a fourth World Heritage Site following the inscription of the uKhahlamba-Drakensberg Park by the parties to the Convention on the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage meeting in Cairns, Australia, today.

The Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Mohammed Valli Moosa, said that the inscription of the uKhahlamba-Drakensberg Park as a "mixed" natural and cultural site was international recognition of the universal significance of South Africa's natural and cultural heritage.

"We can be proud that South Africa is the 23^rd mixed site to be inscribed by the Convention as it underpins unique cultural and natural heritage of our country.

"There is no other place on Earth where you can view 8 000-year-old rock art in an area largely undisturbed since the time the artists drew on the cave walls. Then you can look out from the cave into the landscape that the artist would have seen all those thousands of years ago. In fact you might even see the animals depicted on the cave walls in the valley below. This is part of the powerful heritage that we have in South Africa," he said.

The uKhahlamba-Drakensberg site is South Africa's fourth World Heritage site after the successful inscription of the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park (natural), the Cradle of Humankind at Sterkfontein (cultural) and Robben Island (cultural) last year. This is the first mixed (natural and cultural) site to be nominated by South Africa and the 23^rd mixed site of the 630 sites worldwide that currently have World Heritage Site status.

KZN Wildlife and the KZN Nature Conservation Board were delighted that the uKhahlamba-Drakensberg Park has been awarded cultural and natural World Heritage Site status.

"This means that the unique combination of outstanding landscape and one of the world's greatest collections of rock art are given international standing and recognition," said Dr George Hughes, KZN Wildlife Chief Executive Officer.

"Apart from the added security this status provides, we believe that a really great benefit will be added to tourism in the region -- and that will benefit our local communities immensely," he said. "We in KZN Wildlife are proud to have been instrumental in bringing another World Heritage Site into the South African stable -- this is a tribute to all the people of this province who have a passion for wildlife and the beautiful and unique places that go with it.

"World Heritage Site status brings increased tourism with it, and we look forward to welcoming a lot more visitors, both local and from overseas, to our mountains. More importantly, this status focuses attention on the wonderful contribution made by San artists so many years ago. This is recognition long overdue, and we in KZN Wildlife are proud to be the custodians of this global treasure," said Dr Hughes.

South Africa has decided to apply for World Heritage status for many of the unique cultural and natural assets of this country as it was a way of both highlighting the unique natural and cultural inheritance of our country while at the same time setting up the mechanisms to preserve and conserve them for future generations. This in turn provides truly international tourism products for visitors to see.

The uKhahlamba-Drakensberg Park has a number of outstanding natural features linked to the geomorphic history of the subcontinent, including the high altitude and unique Southern African alpine-tundra vegetation and its associated endemic palaeo-invertebrates.

In addition to these natural assets and located within its original natural setting and ecosystems is one of the world's greatest rock art collections that is of outstanding cultural value. The art represents uniquely a coherent tradition that embodies the beliefs and cosmology of a single people now extinct in the region.

With an estimated 600 sites with more than 35 000 individual images the rock art is the most densely painted area on the African continent. Besides the obvious historic significance of the San rock art, the Drakensberg sites are unique because of the remarkable state of preservation of the art and that there is an undisturbed harmony between the art and its environment.

The inscription of the park would also give impetus to the extension of the conservation area with Lesotho to form the Maloti-Drakensberg Transfrontier Conservation Area.

South Africa is also currently preparing 20 further nominations for World Heritage status. The next site to be nominated will probably be the Cape Floral Kingdom (CFK), one of six floral kingdoms of the world. In its efforts to conserve the CFK, the South African World Heritage Site Committee plans to submit a nomination for a constellation of sites, representing the whole of the CFK, for World Heritage Site status to UNESCO in 2001.

The meeting of the Parties to the Convention agreed to postpone the nomination of the Cape Floristic Kingdom.

KZN Wildlife:
For more information: Roger Porter, tel. (033) 845-1458 or e-mail: rogport@kznncs.org.za
Media inquiries: Jeff Gaisford, tel. (033) 845-1235 or e-mail: jeff@kznncs.org.za
Website: www.rhino.org.za