iSimangaliso Wetland Park

iSimangaliso Wetland Park – (formerly Greater St Lucia Wetland Park) Lake St. Lucia

In December 1999 UNESCO, the World Heritage Committee of the Convention concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage chose the iSimangaliso Wetland Park (GREATER ST LUCIA WETLAND PARK) as the first South African UNESCO World Heritage Site. This status confirms that St Lucia is a place of unique splendour that deserves to rank alongside great icons of the globe.

"The Wetlands Park must be the only place on the globe where the oldest land mammal (the rhinoceros) and the world's biggest terrestrial mammal (the elephant) share an ecosystem with the worlds oldest fish (the coelacanth) and the world's biggest marine mammal (the whale)." - Nelson Mandela

Covering over 600,000 acres, from St Lucia in the South, to the Mozambiquan border in the North, the diversity of iSimangaliso Wetland Park is spectacular.

The criteria for choosing this area as a World Heritage Site were as follows:

- Biodiversity of 5 ecosystems
- Superlative natural phenomena
- Scenic beauty
- Flora and fauna
- Ecological processes

Other outstanding features
- The largest black rhino population in the world
- 220 km of pristine coastline and beaches
- 25,000 year old coastal dunes which are the tallest forested dunes in Africa
- The only major swamp forest left in the Southern Hemisphere
- 3 major lake systems (Lake St Lucia; Kosi Bay; Lake Sibaya) - 4 RAMSAR wetlands
- A 45,000 year old peat wetland

These are just some of the features of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park which make this World Heritage site so unique

Its Biodiversity
- Greatest avifauna diversity in Africa
- 526 bird species
- 5 marine turtle species
- The last significant breeding ground for the giant leatherback and loggerhead turtles
- 2 whale species common along the coast from May to November
- The greatest congregation of hippo and crocodiles in South Africa
- Highest number of frog species in Southern Africa (35)
- 36 snake species
- More than 2000 species of flowering plants
- 100 species of coral
- 110 butterfly species
- 80 dragonfly species.