ISimangaliso Wetland Park

From Southern Africa Info

iSimangaliso Wetland Park

World Heritage site

Year inscribed: 1999

Location: KwaZulu-Natal, 27 50' 20" S 32 33' E

Type: Natural heritage

South Africa's first World Heritage Site, the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park, was listed on 1 November 2007. The name chosen for its unique African identity was the iSimangaliso Wetland Park.

The iSimangaliso Wetland Park is home to one of the largest estuary systems in Africa as well as the continent's southernmost coral reefs. When granting the World Heritage status in 1999, the Committee noted the park's "exceptional biodiversity, including some 521 bird species".

Found on the central Zululand coast of KwaZulu-Natal, the park is made up of 13 protected areas with a total area of 234 566 hectares. The remarkable biodiversity is due to the park's location between subtropical and tropical Africa, enhanced by its coastal setting.

The iSimangaliso's landscape has been shaped by the actions of river, sea and wind, and offers critical habitats to a wide range of Africa's marine, wetland and savannah species. The varied landforms include wide submarine canyons, sandy beaches, forested dune cordon and a mosaic of wetlands, grasslands, forests, lakes and savannah.

The iSimangaliso Wetland Park has its origins in the St Lucia Game Reserve, established in 1895 and composing of the large lake and its islands. St Lucia Park was proclaimed in 1939, containing land around the estuary and a strip of about one kilometre around most of the lake shore. In 1971 St Lucia Lake and the turtle beaches and coral reefs of the Maputaland coast were listed by the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance.

"The mosaic of landforms and habitat types creates breathtaking scenic vistas," the committee notes in its assessment of the park.

"Features include wide submarine canyons, sandy beaches, forested dune cordon and a mosaic of wetlands, grasslands, forests, lakes and savannah. The variety of morphology as well as major flood and storm events contribute to ongoing evolutionary processes in the area.

"Natural phenomena include large numbers of nesting turtles on the beaches; the migration of whales, dolphins and whale-sharks offshore; and huge numbers of waterfowl including large breeding colonies of pelicans, storks, herons and terns."