Magaliesberg earns its due
ON THE FACE of it, the Magaliesberg does not seem all that impressive. It is not as eye-catching as, say, Table Mountain or the Drakensberg. But on closer inspection there is much about it that deserves our care and admiration. It is these qualities that have earned it due recognition, and hopefully better protection, by being declared a World Biosphere Reserve.
It deserves global respect purely by virtue of its age. The experts tell us it is nearly a hundred times older than Everest, having started to rise from the shallow sea that covered these parts more than 2 billion years ago, when there might not even have been life on Earth yet. This is what makes it of interest to geologists the world over.
The range has a deep connection with humanity, having framed our kind’s first stirrings right through to the region’s settlement by our forebears to today’s burgeoning industrial society. It is what makes it a world-renowned archaeological lab and a focus for anthropologists and historians.
Added to all this is a dazzling array of plant and animal life resulting from the meeting between the Highveld grassland pushing in from the south and the Bushveld coming in from the north, as well as its own mountain life retained from ancient times. It is what has had biologists scour its crests and slopes for many decades. Its scenic beauty and tranquillity have nature lovers and city folk trooping there, in turn inspiring a thriving ecotourism industry.
In commending the authorities for putting the range on the world map, we pay tribute to the small group of environmentalists who fought hard for this. We humbly recall too this newspaper’s pioneering role in all this through the foresight of its then environmental reporter, James Clarke, who back in the 1970s, through a series of articles, brought attention to the ecological worth of the range and the damage inflicted by commercial intrusion. We hope its newfound status will serve to underpin the harmony between human activity and nature which biospheres are so vitally designed to encourage.