Nestled within the southern Mediterranean, off the south-east coast of Tunisia, lies the island of Djerba. With a wealthy cultural and non secular historical past, it’s been a crossroad of many civilisations, together with the Phoenicians, Romans, Byzantines and Arabs, and is house to many distinctive architectural websites. Those come with the Sedouikech underground mosque, St Joseph’s Church and the El Ghriba Synagogue.
However, for a few years, Djerba’s cultural heritage has been at risk. That is because of a mixture of over-tourism, environmental trade and human forget.
An underground mosque at the island of Djerba.
Mariana Delca / Shutterstock
Via the Nineteen Nineties to early 2000s, when Djerba used to be on the peak of its reputation, the island used to be attracting between 1 million and 1.5 million guests every 12 months. It’s considered one of Tunisia’s hottest vacationer spaces, with extra motels than some other vacation spot within the nation.
Tourism has led to over the top vacationer site visitors in Djerba, specifically throughout the summer time. It has additionally contributed to different issues equivalent to water pressure and waste technology. In step with figures from 2020, motels on my own generate between 35% and 40% of the entire waste at the island.
However the construction of tourism has, above all, altered Djerba’s cultural panorama. In some spaces of the island, Djerba’s conventional housing – houmas, menzels and houchs – have given method to extra fashionable vacationer infrastructure.
This has sped up since Tunisia’s 2011 revolution, when long-time dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali used to be ousted. Susceptible institutional oversight has ended in vandalism, unlawful development on archaeological websites and unauthorised demolitions.
The advance of tourism on Djerba has additionally eroded conventional tactics of lifestyles. The island has skilled vital adjustments because of tourism, with the improvement of roads, ferries, an airport and the web resulting in a decline in conventional task. Livelihoods like agriculture, fishing and artisanal crafts have declined and are steadily now showcased best in vacationer spaces.
Existence on Djerba has modified because it used to be spread out for tourism.
BTWImages / Shutterstock
Local weather trade has worsened Djerba’s issues. Rainfall patterns have modified around the island over contemporary a long time, with fashions suggesting that annual precipitation charges may just drop 20% via the tip of the century. Extra common and extended droughts are anticipated.
On the identical time, emerging sea ranges and more and more not unusual hurricane surges are affecting the island. Analysis from 2022 discovered that 14% of Djerba’s seashores are actually extremely liable to submersion and coastal erosion.
A number of historic monuments on Djerba have already skilled periodic flooding and saltwater intrusion. The ruins of Sidi Garous and the shrine of Sidi Bakour are actually solely underwater and feature been changed via memorials.
Different archaeological websites positioned close to the coast like Haribus, Meninx, Ghizene and Edzira, a few of which date again to the Roman technology (8th century BC to 5th century AD), are actually partly or absolutely submerged. Research via Tunisia’s Nationwide Institute of Heritage counsel that many of those websites were misplaced completely to the encroaching sea.
Global heritage web site
Vital parts of Djerba’s cultural heritage have already been erased via sea-level upward push and coastal erosion. Long run losses may well be much more serious. The island’s cultural heritage will best develop extra precarious with out significant preservation and local weather adaptation efforts.
Then again, a lot of Djerba’s monuments, historic constructions and standard dwellings have suffered from years of forget. A prolonged loss of native and world investment, in addition to vulnerable institutional frameworks for heritage control, imply one of the crucial island’s historical buildings were deserted. Many different constructions have deteriorated because of a loss of protecting measures and upkeep.
Group organisations such because the Affiliation for the Safeguarding of the Island of Djerba have attempted to step in to fill the void left via vulnerable institutional frameworks. Their paintings levels from handing over public consciousness campaigns to native younger other folks to efforts like re-purposing historic rainwater tanks to control sessions of drought.
However those grassroots efforts on my own don’t seem to be sufficient to prevent Djerba’s cultural heritage from deteriorating at its present tempo.
The ruins of a Housh, a conventional residing, at the island of Djerba.
Ahmed Bedoui, CC BY-NC-ND
In September 2023, the UN Tutorial, Medical and Cultural Group (Unesco) introduced that it used to be including Djerba to its checklist of worldwide heritage websites. Tunisia’s tradition ministry welcomed the verdict. It adopted years of efforts via native teams and executive officers so as to add Djerba to the checklist.
Djerba’s inclusion provides hope for the long-term preservation of the island’s heritage. A global heritage web site designation will increase international reputation and permits stepped forward get admission to to assets of investment.
And because Djerba’s classification, there was some development. The tradition ministry has established a role pressure to watch the development of constructions and different infrastructure, gather information on designated safe spaces, and get ready tasks to keep heritage websites.
However Djerba’s cultural heritage stays at risk. Stepped forward preservation of those websites would require steady investment and stringent legislation of tourism and development actions.
