IN-PERSON Barcelona. Section A

Abstract

There is a growing literature on trees as cultural heritage. The cultural, social and economic value of heritage trees is well-documented. In the proposed paper, based on the literature, archival documents and oral history, I’ll discuss a community project to save an historic oak lane in Potchefstroom, a town in the North-West Province of South Africa, the longest oak lane in the Southern Hemisphere. Towards the end of the twentieth century some of the trees started declining, mainly because of a lack of sufficient water, plant diseases and attacks by insects. South Africa has adequate legislation, in the form of the National Heritage Resources Act (25 of 1999), for the protection of vulnerable cultural heritage. However, law enforcement and government-led conservation management leave much to be desired because of a lack of capacity in the public sector in South Africa. Local communities need to step in to protect their own endangered heritage. In Potchefstroom members of Heritage Potchefstroom, a local conservation organisation, took the initiative in 2017 to launch a “Save Our Oak Lane” project. Extensive inputs were required: public awareness raising, involvement of various stakeholders, fundraising, maintenance of existing oak trees and planting of new trees, drafting of a conservation management plan, etc. The “Save Our Oak Lane” project has been sustainably continued and the decline of the oak lane has been turned around. In the paper the challenges and success factors for the sustainable conservation management of a heritage resource of this nature will be analysed.