Barberton Mountains expected to be declared a World Heritage Site

The Barberton Mountain Land, or the Barberton Greenstone Belt, in Mpumalanga is on the tentative list of Unesco’s World Heritage Site (WHS) programme, as the region contains some of the most widely accepted fossil evidence for Archaean life, dating back 3.5 billion years.

A major drive for international recognition of the mountains started a few years ago and is finally bearing fruit.

Declaration of the site as a Unesco World Heritage Site should take place mid-July, according to Astrid Christianson, Marketing Director of Barberton Tourism, who says the declaration is “imminent”. “I am very sure we are going to get it.”

This was reiterated by Wildlife Ecologist and Park Planner, Tony Ferrar, who has been involved in WHS and the Barberton Makhonjwa Geotrail, the first geo-heritage product for tourism and education in the area running along the R40 across the Barberton Greenstone Belt to the Swaziland border at Bulembu, since 2007.

“My colleagues managing the WHS project expect the proclamation to happen in July 2018,” says Ferrar.

Both Ferrar and Christianson have noticed an increase of requests and information for the area. Once the Barberton Greenstone Belt is declared a Unesco World Heritage Site, the publicity around it will create further demand for the region, both locally and foreign, says Ferrar. It contains the best-preserved, oldest and most diverse sequence of volcanic and sedimentary rocks on earth. These rocks contain some of the earliest life forms yet found. The well-researched outcrops provide a globally unique source of information about the earliest measurable conditions at the earth’s surface from 3.5 billion years ago.

The discovery of the mountains has become known as ‘the history of our planet cast in stone’, as there are very few places where rocks of the Archaean period are visible. The majority of the other sites are far removed, and hard to reach.

There are hundreds of geosites of interest, which, when their information is combined, allow the Barberton Makhonjwa Mountains, also dubbed ‘The Genesis of Life’, to tell a richly consistent and, as yet, only partially explored story of when and where life began.

The Barberton Makhonjwa Geotrail spans 38 kilometres, exploring ancient rock formations that date from the Archaean period.

The route forms only a portion of the longer 260 kilometres Genesis Route which links Barberton, Badplaas and Low’s Creek. The route can either be enjoyed by self-drive or on a guided tour.