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Sifelani Tsiko
The Interview
Climate change is now the biggest threat to Africa’s World Heritage Sites, according to the latest Africa chapter of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change’s sixth assessment report. Zimbabwe’s sites too, are not immune to the threats. In this report, Sifelani Tsiko (ST), our Agric, Environment & Innovations Editor speaks to the director of the National Museums & Monuments of Zimbabwe (NMMZ), Dr Godfrey Mahachi (GM), about the issue and its likely impact over the coming decades on the sites.
ST: What is your general comment to the fears raised by the researchers about African heritage sites?
GM: The fears raised by the researchers regarding the negative impacts of climate change on African World Heritage Sites and African heritage sites, generally are legitimate. The concerns are founded on practical evidence of deterioration of conservation conditions of sites due to, among other causes, changing climatic and environmental conditions.
It must be noted that one of the things Unesco does through its World Heritage Centre is to periodically receive and analyse reports on factors, at a global scale, that affect the protection and conservation of world heritage sites. The second cycle of this periodic reporting grouped these factors into 13 types.
These are buildings and development, transportation infrastructure, service infrastructure, pollution, biological resource use, physical resource extraction, local conditions affecting physical fabric of heritage properties, social and cultural uses of heritage, other human activities, sudden ecological or geological events, invasive or alien species or hyper-abundant species, management and institutional factors and climate change and severe weather events. All the factors highlighted above are impacting African World Heritage sites and Zimbabwe’s own sites are no exception. They are part of this scenario. Climate change related factors are indeed a cross-cutting issue, throughout the globe.
ST: To what extent do you think Zimbabwe’s major World Heritage Sites could be affected by climate change over the coming decades?
GM: Zimbabwe has five properties on the Unesco World Heritage List. These are Victoria Falls, which is shared with neighbouring Zambia, Great Zimbabwe, Khami, Mana Pools and the Matopos. The Ziwa cultural landscape in the north eastern highlands and the Naletale cluster of MaDzimbabwe in the Shangani/Fort Rixon area are on the World Heritage tentative list. Put simply, climate change refers to significant changes or shifts in atmospheric conditions. Such shifts might be experienced in higher or lower than normal temperatures, rainfall patterns or the occurrence, on an unprecedented scale and frequency, of natural hazards and related phenomenon.
Over the years, Zimbabwe has been experiencing climatic shifts. For example, the rainy season is not as predictable as it was in the past, the distribution and quantum of the rains is far less uneven and weather conditions are generally inconsistent with expectations. These changes have had direct and indirect impacts on the preservation of heritage sites. Zimbabwe has experienced many years of droughts and in some areas such as happened in the Chimanimani and Chipinge areas, severe flooding resulting from Cyclone Idai devastated communities.
The devastation is still with us today as affected families are still to be fully rehabilitated. The devastation also affected heritage sites and National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe is currently involved in an exercise to document what heritage was lost as well as reclaim and rehabilitate those heritage sites that survived the cyclone. A few years back, Great Zimbabwe experienced one of its worst ever veld fire.
The fire, which was started outside the monument boundaries was so intense that all efforts to control and extinguish it were in vain. The World Heritage property was therefore totally gutted and critical tourist infrastructure such as lodges, dormitories and ablution facilities were reduced to ashes. The fire burnt through the monument itself and the long-term effects of the fire on the stone walls are yet to be fully known.
For many years, Great Zimbabwe has been receiving less than normal rainfall and the dry environmental conditions make the area susceptible to veldt fires. These conditions also affect the neighbouring communities who now look into the world heritage site for resources like firewood, grazing and other domestic requirements.
The same challenges also obtain at Khami and the Matopos. As environmental conditions change, communities go for those protected areas for relief and this therefore puts pressure on the proper protection and conservation of heritage sites. It will also be recalled that there were fears, not long ago, that the Victoria Falls was drying up because the southern Africa region had received less than normal rainfall for successive years.
This situation is indeed a serious threat to the World Heritage property. We cannot have the Falls if the Zambezi River has no water. The wonderful and bountiful biodiversity that Mana Pools is proud of survives and can only thrive in an environment that is intended to sustain such biodiversity. Serious shifts in environmental conditions impact negatively on the ability of the different species to sustain their numbers, hence the current worries on climate change.
ST: What do you think could be the impact of this to our collective memory, tourism earnings and other sectors?
GM: The devastation of heritage resources has several unfortunate consequences. In heritage is a nation’s collective achievement. The Great Zimbabwe and Khami, among many other heritage sites, are a physical reminder to the Zimbabwean people that we have contributed to world civilisations.
Our forefathers innovated and produced a civilisation that has universal value. It’s a place that must inspire and encourage generations of today and tomorrow to also leave a mark to be noticed by the rest of humanity. We therefore cannot allow such places to deteriorate and die. Further, all of Zimbabwe’s world heritage sites, apart from their importance as nods around which we cherish our collectivity are also significant players in the economic development of our country through tourism.
The reason why nations across the globe make serious efforts to have their properties inscribed on the Unesco World Heritage List is to also access tourism business. All these heritage sites are recreational and are so popular for general teaching and learning.
ST: Which of the country’s major World Heritage Sites do you think could be more vulnerable to climate change in the coming decades?
GM: Zimbabwe’s five World Heritage Sites are all vulnerable to the vagaries of climate change. The effects of climate change are already being experienced at these properties. Great Zimbabwe is no longer what it was a decade ago because climatic shifts have altered its physical setting.
It’s much drier, its more exposed because the dense bush that used to surround it is slowly thinning. The Chisikana, a stream that used to flow through the monument, disappeared decades ago and the process of desertification slowly continues. At Victoria Falls, concerns about water levels are already topical and so are concerns about the rainfall patterns and its possible negative impacts on the Mana Pools biodiversity. The degree of vulnerability of our heritage sites to climate change in the next decade will to a large extent depend on the effectiveness of the mitigation measures we will adopt at site level as well as at the national and global levels.
ST: What do you think needs to be done to save the World Heritage Sites from the impact of climate change?
GM: Whilst management planning at heritage site level can be useful in lessening the impact of climate change, the challenge that causes worry has to do with the commitment at global level to address the root cause of the problem. Dealing with the symptoms rather than the cause is not good enough. There are economies that have contributed to the depletion of the ozone.
This depletion directly contributes to climate change and severe weather events. One would have some degree of optimism if concerted efforts to address the root causes were put in place, especially by those economies whose contribution to ozone layer depletion is significant.
ST: Are there any global partners you are working with to conduct research on the likely impact of climate change on World Heritage Sites in Zimbabwe? If so, what have you managed to do so far? Shed details of the work.
GM: The heritage sector in Zimbabwe is doing something to assess the impacts of climate change on heritage resources. At the present moment, National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe is working in the Chipinge and Chimanimani districts to document the effects of Cyclone Idai on the cultural heritage of those areas.
The funding for the project was obtained from an external partner. After documentation and assessment of the state of conservation of the heritage sites, some of those properties will be rehabilitated and restored.
Further, and through the United States Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation, the Great Zimbabwe electronic stone walls monitoring project collects different sets of environmental data that will allow us to have insights into climate issues and how these impact the Great Zimbabwe conservation program.
ST: Do you think citizens have a role to play in the survival of our World Heritage Sites? If so, how can they play their part?
GM: Heritage is best managed with and not for communities. Heritages sites that survive for generations are able to do so because communities see value in them. That value is best transmitted between and within communities through the ability by those communities to use that heritage.
Great Zimbabwe and other cultural heritage sites, be they world heritage sites or not are protected more effectively if such partnerships are in place. The Mugabe, Nemanwa, Murinye and Charumbira communities are critical for the long term protection and conservation of the Great Zimbabwe. Any measures to deal with challenges arising from climate change must be equally embraced by these communities for their effective application. This applies to the Matopos where the different communities living around the boundaries of the world heritage site must also be active participants in the site’s conservation and related programs.
ST: What are your general hopes for Zimbabwe’s World Heritage Sites in the wake of rising concerns over climate change?
GM: Climate change is real. It’s an unfolding story. The full effects of climate change are not yet known but on the basis of what the world has been experiencing over the past few decades, the worst is probably still to come. The story might change for the better should the world more sincerely tackles the root cause. I am not a pessimist but I have so far not seen any developments that would create optimism for me on this matter.
This therefore means heritage remains at risk and should the climate change effects escalate, the chances of losing our irreplaceable heritage resources equally increase. Under the circumstances, the best we can do is plan mitigation at heritage site level. If that planning is collective and is seen to address challenges that the heritage site and its neighbouring communities are suffering as a result of climate change, the chances of success are much higher.
Online Reporter