Sacred sites can protect natural heritage, culture

NDIDZULAFHI INNOCENT SINTHUMULE

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IN SOUTH AFRICA, although protected areas play a vital role in biodiversity conservation, they are not sufficient.

A lot of biodiversity occurs outside formal protected areas. Protected areas make up only 9.2% (or 11 280 684 hectares) of the country's total land area. The National Protected Area Expansion Strategy, which was last updated in 2016, aims to increase the percentage of protected areas in the country to 16%.

My view is that the target can only be achieved by recognising other areas that have high conservation value, such as sacred natural sites. These are places with special spiritual and cultural value.

Recognising sacred natural sites as "other effective area-based conservation measures" entails officially declaring them as protected areas.

Examples of sacred natural sites include these in Limpopo province:

Thathe holy forest

• the sacred forest of Vhutanda

• the Phiphidi waterfall

• the Fundudzi lake.

In the province of KwaZulu-Natal, there are Mazizini and Mabasa forests, regarded as sacred by local communities. In the Free State province, the local Basotho people regard certain caves as sacred and ancestral sites: Motouleng, Mautse, Mantsopa and Badimong.