Heritage Day
24 September 2022
The rich heritage found in iSimangaliso Wetland Park is undoubtedly one of the reasons why it keeps attracting thousands of visitors across the globe. iSimangaliso stretches from Maphelane near St Lucia right up to Kosi Bay in the Mozambique boarder. It is the second largest protected area in South Africa. In December 1999 it was listed as South Africa’s World Heritage site in recognition of its unique global values, the beauty and biological wealth. It became the first site in South Africa to be recognized as a World Heritage Site. This status was accorded by the United Nations Environment Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). This fragile combination of natural beauty and social diversity has elevated the iSimangaliso Wetland Park to the status of an icon in the history of environmental struggle in South Africa as former President Nelson Mandela himself during his speech marking the historic 2002 reintroduction of elephants to the Eastern Shores of the Lake St Lucia said that, “The Wetland Park must be the only place on the globe where the world’s oldest land mammal (the Rhinoceros) and the world’s biggest terrestrial mammal (the Elephant) share an ecosystem with the world’s oldest Fish (the Coelacanth) and the world’s biggest marine mammal (the Whale).”