Benefits, Burdens, and Opportunities in South Africa: The Implications of Ratifying the 2001 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage

Abstract

Having participated in the drafting of the 2001 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage in the late 1990s, South Africa’s Department of Arts and Culture hosted a series of public meetings to gauge the desirability of ratification in 2008. A decision was taken to ratify but it took almost a decade before South Africa finally deposited the instrument of ratification in 2015. Within that time, the maritime cultural management landscape underwent significant shifts and the framework within which underwater cultural heritage is now governed has been adapted to incorporate a more Africanist approach. This chapter will examine the implications of ratification within the current management context. It will analyze the fit between national legislation, international policy, and real-world management strategies. The chapter will determine a set of needs for facilitating implementation. The chapter will also examine the burden of expectation imposed on South Africa, heritage practitioners, and heritage institutions by ratification of an international treaty and highlight the new questions of how underwater archaeological sites are accessed by South Africa’s heritage managers, maritime archaeologists government agencies, and public. It will focus on the challenges of implementing the convention in the developing world and, finally, look forward towards strategies for underwater cultural heritage management within current constraints.