Matobo Hills

The Matobo Hills are of outstanding heritage significance as a cultural landscape that combines dramatic granite geology, one of Southern Africa’s densest concentrations of prehistoric rock art, and living religious traditions into a single, deeply symbolic place. Inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2003 under criteria (iii), (v), and (vi), the site testifies to the long sequence of human occupation and artistic expression from the Stone Age to historic times, illustrates the enduring relationship between people and landscape through shrines and sacred sites, and serves as the centre of the powerful Mwari/Mlimo oracular cult, which remains a key spiritual force in the region.

As of 2024–2026, the Matobo Hills remain an active UNESCO World Heritage Site and functioning cultural landscape, with the 424 km² Matobo National Park forming the core of the larger 3,100 km² hills area. The site continues to attract tourists for rock-art visits, rhino tracking, and historical tours, while local communities still use shrines and sacred places for rain-making and other rituals, and the Matobo Conservation Society remains active in research, education, and on-the-ground conservation work. At the same time, the hills face pressures from drought, soil erosion, invasive species, growing local populations, and fragmented management between different stakeholders, all of which pose ongoing challenges to the long-term protection of both the natural environment and the thousands of rock-art sites.

The Matobo Hills face a complex mix of environmental and human-driven conservation challenges. Climate change has brought more frequent droughts and erratic rainfall, stressing wetlands, rivers, and vegetation, while deforestation, invasive alien plants, overgrazing, and streambank cultivation drive soil erosion and siltation that degrade both habitats and rock-art settings. Frequent fires, unregulated tourism, and development add further pressure through vandalism, littering, and habitat loss, and growing local populations intensify demand for firewood, grazing land, and water. Fragmented management and tensions between communities, conservationists, and government agencies have weakened traditional conservation practices, prompting initiatives by the Matobo Conservation Society, USAID’s Resilient Waters Project, and the World Monuments Fund to support wetland rehabilitation, fire management, community education, and local stewardship of the rock art and broader cultural landscape.