George Bernard Shaw (1856 ? 1950), an Irish playwright whose work spanned more than 60 plays, once said, "We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future". This can never be more pertinent than in the case of appreciating and preserving the wonders of the world, starting right on our very own doorstep.

UNESCO (The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) 'seeks to encourage the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity' through its World Heritage Site List.

This statement is embodied in an international treaty adopted by UNESCO in 1972 called the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World's Cultural and Natural Heritage. Currently, there are 878 World Heritage Sites in 145 countries. South Africa has eight of which to be proud - four cultural, three natural and one mixed site.

South Africa's cultural sites

Robben Island (1999)

Located 11 kilometres offshore from Cape Town in the Western Cape, Robben Island is most famous as the place where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for nearly two decades. South Africa's first democratically elected president spent his days here in a tiny five square meter cell - the place where he began his world-renowned autobiography, 'The Long Walk to Freedom'.

The island is now home to the Robben Island Museum where tourists, locals and school groups visit, often by means of the Robben Island Ferry, which departs from the Robben Island Gateway at the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront.

In addition to being named a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the island has also been declared a South African National Monument (1996); a National Museum (1996); an Associated Institution of the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology (1997); and a National Heritage Site (2006). Quite a few achievements for a small island of little more than five square kilometres.

In 1990, the South African government unbanned the ANC and other anti-Apartheid movements and released the political prisoners from Robben Island, the last leaving in May 1991. In 1999 the island ceased to be a jail and the World Heritage Committee (WHC) declared it a World Heritage Site, noting that the island "symbolises the triumph of the human spirit, of freedom, and of democracy over oppression".

'Cradle of Humankind' (1999)

Located 50km from Johannesburg in Gauteng, with a small extension into the neighbouring North-West, the Cradle of Humankind is some 474km? in size and boasts over 950 fossils, some dating back millions of years. The area is home to a series of limestone caves, such as the well-known Sterkfontein Caves, where the Australopithecus africanus fossil, nicknamed 'Mrs Ples', was found in 1947.

This 2.3 million year-old fossil helped to validate the 1924 discovery of a juvenile Australopithecus africanus skull, called the 'Taung Child'. Other significant excavations have revealed such fossils as the near-complete skeleton 'Little Foot' in 1997 dating back between two and three million years, as well as fossil hominid teeth and the evidence of the early use of fire. These and other fossils are housed in the Maropeng Visitors Centre, opened by former president Thabo Mbeki in December 2005.

In 1999, the WHC granted the Cradle World Heritage status and noted that the sites "throw light on the earliest ancestors of humankind. They constitute a vast reserve of scientific information, the potential of which is enormous".

Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape (2003)

Mapungubwe, discovered in 1932, lies at the confluence of the Limpopo and Shashe Rivers in the Mapungubwe National Park, in the Limpopo Province. It comprises a sandstone hill, some 30 metres high, surrounded by cliffs. It is believed to have been South Africa's very first 'kingdom', inhabited by the highly sophisticated Mapungubwean people who traded gold and ivory with Egypt, India and China, between the 13th and 14th centuries.

The name means 'place of the stone wisdom' and it has been the site of the discovery of human bones and a multitude of interesting artefacts such as pottery, beads, gold ornaments, crafted ivory and bone, copper and iron. Also found here, in a royal grave in the 1930s, is the 'Golden Rhino'; a carved wooden rhinoceros covered with thin gold leaf, declared a Cultural Treasure in 1997.

In 2003, the WHC said of the Mapungubwe area, "What survives are the almost untouched remains of the palace sites and also the entire settlement area dependent upon them... presenting an unrivalled picture of the development of social and political structures over some 400 years".

Today the Mapungubwe Landscape is characterised by giant baobabs, forests and floodplains which provide a home for herds of elephant and buffalo, and the rare Pel's fishing owl.

Richtersveld Cultural and Botanical Landscape (2007)

Situated in the Northern Cape, the Richtersveld comprises some 160 000 hectares of ountainous desert characterised by temperatures in excess of 50 degrees.

The area - seemingly barren and desolate - is actually home to a myriad species, which have adapted to life in this harsh terrain. To the north, the Richtersveld National Park boasts a wide variety of animals including kudu, duiker, mountain zebra and leopard, as well as 650 plant species. It also provides excellent bird-watching opportunities and is popular with overseas tourists and nature-lovers.

One of the most interesting features of the Richtersveld is that it was recently given back to the local Nama people (descendants of the Khoisan) who inhabit the area, under the South African land restitution programme. The local community owns the entire area and, with the help of SA National Parks, is responsible for the Park and the World Heritage Site.

In 2007, the WHC noted, "The extensive communal grazed lands bear testimony to the land management processes which have ensured the protection of the succulent Karoo vegetation," and "This demonstrates a harmonious interaction between people and nature".

Natural sites

iSimangaliso Wetland Park (1999)

Proclaimed as South Africa's very first World Heritage Site in 1999, iSimangaliso Wetland Park - formerly St Lucia Wetland Park - lies on the coast of KwaZulu-Natal. This ecological treasure consists of 220km of coastline and beaches with 100 species of coral; eight inter-linking ecosystems; eight major game reserves; three lake systems; and the few big swamp forests left in South Africa. It is home to the Big Five; over 500 species of bird; some 2000 species of flowering plants; and five cultural groups.

During a speech marking the 2002 reintroduction of elephants to the eastern shores of the wetland, Nelson Mandela said: "The Wetland Park must be the only place on the globe where the world's oldest land mammal (the rhinoceros) and the world's biggest terrestrial mammal (the elephant) share an ecosystem with the world's oldest fish (the coelacanth) and the world's biggest marine mammal (the whale)." In November 2007, the Park was given a new name to reflect its unique African identity: iSimangaliso Wetland Park.

In granting the park World Heritage status the WHC noted, "The Park's location between sub-tropical and tropical Africa as well as its coastal setting has resulted in exceptional biodiversity...".

Cape Floral Region Protected Areas (2004)

The Cape Floral Region, situated across the Western and Eastern Cape, comprises eight protected areas including Table Mountain; De Hoop Nature Reserve; Boland mountain complex; Groot Winterhoek wilderness area; Swartberg mountains; Boosmansbos wilderness area; Cederberg wilderness area; and Bavianskloof. The area spans 90 000 square kms and includes the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens - the first botanical garden ever to be included in a World Heritage Site.

Although the region takes up only 0.04 percent of the world's land area, it contains a magnificent three percent of its plant species making it one of the world's six floral kingdoms and one of 18 biodiversity hotspots. It is home to nearly 20 percent of the continent's flora, as well as 11 000 marine animal species and 560 vertebrate species.

Fynbos ('fine bush' in Afrikaans) covers more than half the surface area of the region and accounts for around 80 percent of the plant species. In 2004, the WHC stated the, "Unique plant reproductive strategies, adaptive to fire, patterns of seed dispersal by insects, as well as patterns of endemism and adaptive radiation found in the flora are of outstanding value to science".

Vredefort Dome (2005)

The Vredefort Dome or Vredefort Crater is the site at which a meteorite, 10km in diameter, crashed into the earth about two billion years ago. It lies 100km southwest of Johannesburg near Vredefort in the Free State. The crater, between 250km and 300km wide, is larger than both the Sudbury Basin in Ontario, Canada and the Chicxulub crater in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico making it the largest known impact structure on Earth. It is also far older than the Chicxulub structure (65 million years old) and is thought to be the site of the impact that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs.

It was first thought that the dome in the crater's centre was formed by a volcanic explosion, and it wasn't until the middle of the 1990s that this was disproved. Shatter cones were discovered in the bed of the Vaal River, which provided evidence that it was in fact the site of a meteor impact.

The meteorite caused a thousand-megaton blast of energy, the largest known energy blast in history, and may have sufficiently increased oxygen levels so as to allow for the development of multi-cellular life forms.

When it was added to the list in 2005, the WHC noted that, "Vredefort Dome is the oldest, largest, and most deeply eroded complex meteorite impact structure in the world".

Mixed sites

uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park (2000)

Lying in the west of KwaZulu-Natal on the border of Lesotho, the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park encompasses over 243 000ha of land stretching 150km from Royal Natal National Park in the south to Cobham Forest Station in the north.

The Park's name is a combination of the Zulu 'uKhahlamba' meaning barrier of spears, and the Afrikaans 'Drakensberg' meaning dragon mountains and, with the largest and most concentrated collection of rock art paintings on the continent, is a true representation of South African culture and heritage. The San people lived amongst the caves and shelters of the Drakensberg valley over 4000 years ago and left behind over 35 000 artistic images, the oldest of which is about 2400 years old.

It is this unique blend of rich historical value and exceptional natural beauty that prompted its placement as a mixed site onto the list in 2000. The WHC described the paintings as, "world famous and widely considered one of the supreme achievements of humankind ... outstanding in quality and diversity of subject and in their depiction of animals and human beings ... which throws much light on their way of life and their beliefs".

Next time you are near one of SA's unique World Heritage Sites, stop to take in the natural beauty and cultural significance it has to offer and discover for yourself why UNESCO chose these as having 'outstanding national value'. After all, regardless of which territories they may occupy, World Heritage Sites belong to every human being in the world and are there for us to enjoy and to preserve for future generations.