Group sitting on wooden chairs looking forward towards a projector screening

This phase of the project included the development of plans for site management, conservation, condition reporting, and monitoring.

Work Completed

In August and September 2005, a two-week workshop on rock art site management planning was held at Mapungubwe National Park. Twenty-three participants, mainly personnel at national and provincial parks with rock art sites, attended from various parts of South Africa, as well as from Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Zambia. The participants drafted management plans for four rock art sites within the national park. This process included site description, writing statements of significance, assessment of condition and threats, photo documentation, and identifying management goals and timelines. As part of this process, the participants met with local park stakeholders, including property owners, academics, and community representatives.

In October 2006 the project held a similar two-week workshop in site management planning in the Cederberg in collaboration with the Clanwilliam Living Landscape Project. The activity was attended by fourteen participants from Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa, who collectively represented four World Heritage sites, as well as other national and provincial parks. The workshop focused on the development of management plans for rock art sites in the Cederberg and was similar in scope to the 2005 workshop. As in the Mapungubwe site management workshop, the participants held a stakeholder meeting with local representatives of the tourism industry to identify significant management issues. The workshop culminated with participants preparing draft management plans for four rock art sites.

In August and September 2008, the project held a two-and-a-half week workshop on site management planning at Mapungubwe National Park. Eleven participants attended, primarily from South Africa but also from Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Zambia. Participants revised and updated three site-specific management plans (originally drafted in the 2005 Mapungubwe course) for sites that could be opened to the public for guided visits, carried out detailed documentation of four sites that could also be opened to the public for guided visits, and revised and updated the generic management plan for rock art sites in the Greater Mapungubwe Transfrontier Conservation Area (TFCA), which includes areas in Botswana and Zimbabwe. As part of the workshop participants visited rock art sites and met with stakeholders in Botswana and Zimbabwe.

In July 2012 IPPHA hosted a two-week program for a group from southern African countries structured around site visits starting in Canberra and continuing on to Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory. The visit to Australia enabled an exchange of expertise, knowledge, and the beginning of enduring contacts.

In 2013 a reciprocal exchange occurred in South Africa for those participating in the Australian workshop with meetings at selected sites to further strengthen contacts, enhance conservation practice, and study indigenous management practices and sustainable use of sites.

The Conservation Institute has also partnered with the Institute for Professional Practice in Heritage and the Arts (IPPHA) at the Australian National University to develop workshops on the conservation and management of rock.

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