RED DESERT
The Red Desert property is located outside Port Edward and is made up of
land owned by the Hibiscus Coast Municipality and private landowners. It lies within the biological
area known as the Pondoland Centre of Plant Endemism, one of the two such Centres of the
Maputaland-Pondoland Region of Plant Diversity. There are about 235 Centres in the world. The
Pondoland Centre (PC) has also been rated by Conservation International as part of the
Maputaland-Pondoalnd-Albany Hotspot, one of 34 of plant hotspots recognized world wide and thus has
a very high ranking for conservation.
The site contains a significant area of “Critically Endangered”
Pondoland-Natal Sandstone Coastal Sourveld and contributes 1.4 % to the provincial target for this
vegetation type. While this may not seem like much, the significance of the Red Desert site becomes
more apparent when one considers that only 5.5 % of this habitat is under formal conservation. This
vegetation type forms a critical component of the Pondoland Centre of Plant Endemism of the
Maputaland-Pondoland Region, having a significant diversity of endemic plant species found nowhere
else in the country. In addition, Red Desert is important for the conservation of key species,
particularly the floral component. The grasslands are generally very diverse and have an excellent
range of grasses and other forbs, notably for the populations of sugarbushes (Protea spp.) and
other rare and vulnerable species which is urgent and necessary to help conserve the range of
biodiversity in this area.
The Red Desert consists of areas of grassland, forest, wetland and
eroded red sands (the Red Desert) and the cliff face overlooking the Umtavuna River, which provide
an amenity to the community (environment and cultural experience). Aesthetically the area gives
superb views over the Umtamvuna Gorge and estuary with the stark contrast of the Red Desert, while
the grasslands provide a grand opportunity for walking and enjoyment.
Cultural significance -
The Red Desert site is well known by tourists for its prolific
artefacts, and similarly we found widespread scatters of artefacts associated with the dunes. Among
the surface finds were picks, bifaces such as rough handaxes, choppers, a radial core, and various
other flakes and cores. The sands in this area preserve fossil traces of intensive root growth in
the form of paler root channels in the red sand that are akin to rhizoliths, indicating that
vegetation was once lush, such as is the case in respect of the coastal forests in the region
today. Several beach cobbles are eroding from deposits in one of the areas, while a short distance
away an old beach level with more numerous cobbles is being exposed through erosion. Artefacts are
made on these beach cobbles, which were a ready source of materials. The tool types we observed are
consistent and typical of the Sangoan Industry.
As an extensive and important cultural landscape of great antiquity, the
Red Sands of the KwaZulu-Natal and Transkei coast should be protected and preserved. The rarity of
Sangoan sites in South Africa is a further very strong argument in favour of its protection.
Elsewhere in Africa, the Sangoan Industry has been dated to ca 300,000 years, a time of pre-modern
humans that correlates with the occupation of more challenging habitats. By 200,000 years, modern
Homo sapiens had evolved. Little is known of the physical appearance of the Sangoan people. The
fact that fossil vegetation and animals were found in the Wild Coast surface site holds promise for
the recovery of further fossils in better context, possibly even Sangoan hominid remains. Faunal
and floral remains would also undoubtedly provide valuable information on past environments.
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