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The recent devastating fires that engulfed the Cape Floral Region Protected Areas in Cape Town, South Africa and the surrounding areas including the University of Cape Town shocked many as it exposed the fragility of both natural and cultural heritage as well as documentary heritage. This coming on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the 1972 World Heritage Convention was a stark reminder of the need to improve disaster risk reduction around heritage sites.

Inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2004, the Cape Floral Region Protected Areas is located at the south-western extremity of South Africa. It is one of the world’s great centres of terrestrial biodiversity. The extended property includes national parks, nature reserves, wilderness areas, State forests and mountain catchment areas. These elements add a significant number of endemic species associated with the Fynbos vegetation, a fine-leaved sclerophyllic shrubland adapted to both a Mediterranean climate and periodic fires, which is unique to the Cape Floral Region.

It is recognised as one of the world’s ‘hottest’ hotspots for its diversity of endemic and threatened plants, and contains outstanding examples of significant ongoing ecological, biological and evolutionary processes. This extraordinary assemblage of plant life and its associated fauna is represented by a series of 13 protected area clusters covering an area of more than 1 million hectares. These protected areas also conserve the outstanding ecological, biological and evolutionary processes associated with the beautiful and distinctive Fynbos vegetation, unique to the Cape Floral Region.

However, the plant species in the fynbos biome are also among the most threatened in the world, with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) ranking nearly half of the known species as ‘vulnerable’, ‘endangered’ or ‘critically endangered’. Conservation of this biodiversity in the context of human-induced pressures such as population growth, climate change, and introduction of invasive species, is a challenging issue. 

 

In this context, although fire is a naturally occurring phenomenon that maintains the ecosystem, events such as the recent disaster show that it can become a threat after long-term suppression and when fynbos is invaded or interspersed by fast-burning exotic species. It is crucial for the management of the Cape Floral Kingdom, but also for other World Heritage sites across the world, to learn lessons and adapt management for biodiversity hotspots in proximity of urban areas. 

Investing in reducing disaster risks at World Heritage properties in order to mitigate the possible impact of major hazards on these precious resources is critically important. Recent studies have demonstrated how heritage is not simply a passive entity in the face of disaster, but has a significant potential for reducing disaster risks in general. This potential can be harnessed to reduce vulnerabilities, and thus negative impacts on lives, property, and livelihoods, before, during and after a catastrophic event.

Heritage plays a crucial role in fostering resilience by reducing vulnerabilities, and also by providing precious assets for the sustainable social and economic development of an affected region during its recovery phase, by attracting investment, creating employment, or providing renewable natural resources. This is why the protection of heritage in the event of disaster is of paramount importance.

91Â鶹¹ú²ú¾«Æ·×ÔÅÄ started working together with States Parties to the World Heritage Convention, Advisory Bodies and other partners, to integrate a consideration for heritage in disaster risk reduction (DRR) policies and programmes, and to strengthen preparedness for disaster risks at World Heritage sites. Actions undertaken include the development of a Strategy for Reducing Risks from Disasters at World Heritage Properties, the organisation of technical workshops and the publication of resource materials, as well as the provision of International Assistance mechanisms.

The fires that broke out in Cape Town did not affect the world heritage site alone. It went as far as the University of Cape Town where it destroyed materials in the Jagger Library. Special collections, which constituted valuable documentary heritage, were lost. Documentary heritage is of vital importance in preserving cultural identities, in linking the past and present and in shaping the future. The documentary heritage in libraries and archives and collections constitutes a major part of our shared memory and reflects the diversity of peoples, languages and cultures. It also constitutes vital knowledge, which in today’s world is the key to sustainable development. 

The fires razed down the significant and rare African Studies collections at Cape Town University. Founded in 1953, the African Studies collections consist of approximately 65 000 volumes, including up-to-date materials as well as works on Africa and South Africa printed before 1925, and many hard-to-find volumes in a wide range of European and African languages .

A UNESCO pilot survey conducted in March 2021 to assess memory institutions exposure to disaster risk and how to address the risks, concluded that the main disasters affecting the memory institutions surveyed included floods; fires; theft; storms; earthquakes; hurricanes; and armed conflict. The survey also found that about 42.85% of the institutions surveyed identified the lack of financial resources to be the most indirect yet common cause for damages, affecting their long-term plans of preserving their collections.

In its efforts to scale up preservation of documentary heritage, the 38th session of the UNESCO General Conference adopted the 2015 recommendation concerning the Preservation of, and Access to, Documentary Heritage in the Digital Age. Over the years, 91Â鶹¹ú²ú¾«Æ·×ÔÅÄ also adopted several conventions, protocols recommendations and charters pertaining to documentary heritage. UNESCO recommends memory institutions to enhance prevention and risk reduction practices which includes the development of management plans to guide their responses to emergencies or disasters. UNESCO also calls for the enhancement of public policies and legal frameworks to reduce risks and build memory institution capacities. 

In light of increasing risks of public health crises and natural hazards caused by climate change impact, UNESCO calls for the reinforcement of national, regional, and international cooperation to reduce risks and build capacities to handle emergencies. It is also critical to digitise all the collections in archives and libraries.