iSimangaliso Wetland Park

The iSimangaliso Wetland Park runs along some 220 kilometres of the north-eastern coast of KwaZulu-Natal, from the Mozambican border southwards, and was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1999 under the name Greater St Lucia Wetland Park, becoming South Africa's first property on the List. Its present name means miracle or wonder in Zulu.

Its value comes from the layering of very different ecosystems within a narrow strip: Lake St Lucia, a great shallow estuary that swings between fresh and hypersaline water according to the drought cycles; systems of wooded coastal dunes that rank among the highest in the world; wetlands, marshes and peat bogs; savannah and sand forest; and, offshore, the southernmost coral reefs on the African continent.

That diversity supports an extraordinary fauna. Large populations of hippopotamus and Nile crocodile live in the estuary; the northern beaches are a nesting ground for leatherback and loggerhead turtles, with monitoring programmes among the oldest in the world; and humpback whales pass through its waters each year on migration, alongside whale sharks and manta rays. The park also holds an abundant birdlife, with pelicans and flamingos in the estuary. Management has involved removing exotic forestry plantations and reintroducing wildlife, and works with the local communities whose land rights have gradually been recognised since the end of apartheid.