The Save Bantamsklip Association applies for UNESCO World Heritage Site consideration

* Overstrand Ward 11

The Bantamsklip proposed nuclear site is sittuated in Overstrand Ward 11. The area including Dyer Island marine sanctuary, stands to be possibly recognised as a future World Heritage Site and proposed Greater Agulhas National Park and as such, set to develop into a major tourism node for the Overstrand

Proposed nuclear power station site in the heart of the most important centre

of biodiversity in Africa

COMMENTARY ARTICLE

30.10.11

By John Williams

Is Bantamsklip and Dyer Island worthy of a UNESCO World Heritage Site status?

The Save Bantamsklip Association committee has decided to motivate a submission to the South African World Heritage Advisory Committee for the recommendation of the Bantamsklip coastal plains and limestone hills of Groot Hagelkraal, together with the Dyer Island marine complex, to be considered worthy of a UNESCO World Heritage Site application. Its chairman, John Williams, says the association has been gathering information, which indicates that the Agulhas bioregion is founded, not only on the ancient human landscape of Middle Stone Age (Strandloper) Later Stone Age (San) and of the Chainoukwa Khoikhoi pastoral people, but on major centers of biodiversity and endemism.

On closer examination, the Agulhas bioregion hosts the greatest number of South African marine endemics found on the South African coast, including sparid reef fish, octocorals and algae and is a nursing ground for many endemic and pelagic fish species. The coastline is seen to constitute an overlap zone with the mixing area of two currents, the Agulhas and Benguela and in conservation planning terms, is widely recognized as an independent province and bioregion. The Agulhas Biozone (coastal and marine areas containing Bantamsklip and Dyer Island) scores high on the threatened coastal lists and is gaining recognition as a priority area, and in the case of Dyer Island, is a known, ‘irreplaceable category, within the Marine Protected Area (MPA) planning strategy and recommendation studies. Bantamsklip and Groot Hagelkraal are both a registered SA Nature Foundation Natural Heritage Site (No: 72) and a registered Historical Monument.

Mr Williams went on further to say that present research indicates that Groot Hagelkraal farm harbours over 800 plant species, including 22 Red Data species of Agulhas Plain endemics, of which six are entirely restricted to the farm itself. Most of the endemics are associated with limestone soils. Rare and endemic species are often clustered in so-called hot-spots. Such a concentration of endemic plants is without parallel, not only elsewhere in the Cape Floristic Region, but also in the world. According to Professor Cowling of Nelson Mandela University, the property ranks as the most extreme concentration of "point endemism" recorded anywhere in the world, and represents the foremost conservation priority in the Cape Floristic Region and is regarded as the world’s "hottest" of biodiversity hot spots.

Most of these discoveries have been due to the seminal work of Prof Richard Cowling.

Contact is being made with the South African World Heritage Advisory Committee.

For further information of this initiative and of the nuclear power station threat to Bantamsklip go to: www.savebantamsklip.org