The Principal Act concerning the preservation and conservation of National Heritage in Mauritius ,is the National Heritage Fund Act of 2003. This law was voted on the 14th October 2003 and put into practice on November 08th of the same year.
According to this law , there are two types of Heritage : tangible and intangible Heritage.
1) Tangible being :
(a) any structure of cultural significance, remains of such a structure, building or group of buildings, which, because of its homogeneity or its place in the landscape is of outstanding value; and
(b) architectural work, work of monumental sculpture and painting, element or structure of an archaeological nature, inscription, cave dwelling which is of outstanding value;
These tangible Heritage should be found on sites ; “site” meaning here any area on land or underwater, with or without any structure, building, monument or object, thereon having a cultural significance.
2) Intangible Heritage :
A. means intangible aspects of inherited culture and includes culinary arts, with cultural traditions, customs, festivities, oral history and traditions, performing arts, rituals, popular memory and skills and techniques connected material aspects of culture.
These are the only definitions that we can have in this Act concerning the National Heritage .However to get a more detailed idea of the validity of this Act, let us compare this Act to the South African National Heritage Resources Act, 1999 .Below are the definitions contained in the comparative document.
‘‘Archaeological’’ means
(a) material remains resulting from human activity which are in a state of disuse and are in or on land and which are older than 100 years, including artefacts, human and hominid remains and