Accommodation South Africa Greater St Lucia

In 1999, the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park was listed as South Africa’s first World Heritage Site and the Wetlands Authority was established to manage it. A mix of state-owned land, former military sites and commercial forests, the park is now one of South Africa’s largest, 260 000 hectares in size.

Situated on the untamed Elephant Coast of the Zulu Kingdom, it has 220 km of coastline, bringing together five ecosystems and eight unique destinations: Maphelane, Lake St Lucia, False Bay, Cape Vidal, Sodwana Bay, uMkhuze Game Reserve, Lake Sibaya and Kosi Bay.

Greater St Lucia is home to the greatest congregation of hippos and crocodiles in South Africa and is the last significant breeding ground for giant leatherback and loggerhead turtles. The area protects 100 species of coral, the only major swamp forests left in South Africa, three major lake systems, four wetlands of international importance and includes eight major game reserves within the broader Maputaland.

Mega herbivores like elephants and rhinos were brought in first because their ecological role in opening up the bush is so important. But the new park has also received translocated wildlife from all over the country – endangered white and black rhinos, buffalo, wild dogs, cheetahs, and plains game including wildebeest, zebras, and giraffes. The recently created Mazimbovu tourism circuit road winding through the increasingly wildlife-rich Eastern Shores has become very popular among visitors who previously confined themselves to the beaches.

The Wetlands Park is not yet a Big Five reserve because there are not enough fences to safeguard communities from predators, especially lions. This is a small consideration, though. As former President Nelson Mandela pointed out: ‘The Wetlands 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)’.

Accommodation ranges from luxury five star lodges to a wide variety of campsites, self-catering log cabins and bush lodges in the area.

The Greater St Lucia Wetlands Park is Unique because:

* Conservation International recently designated the Maputaland area (an ecosystem falling within the Park) as a section a South African environmental ‘hotspot’, with exceptionally high concentrations of endemic species under threat.

* In terms of biodiversity, the Great St Lucia Wetland Park uMkhuze Game Reserve section has the highest density of black rhino anywhere in the world; the highest number of frog species in southern Africa (35); 36 species of snakes; 80 dragonfly species; 110 butterfly species; 526 bird species (the greatest avifauna diversity in Africa, with half of South Africa’s bird species and 25% of Africa’s); more than 2 000 species of flowering plants; all five of South Africa’s mangrove tree species; 25 000-year-old coastal dunes; a 45 000 year old peat wetland and the largest known living fossil fish population (coelacanths) outside the Comores.

* The Park is one of the largest protected areas in South Africa with recorded and potential Stone Age and Iron Age sites.

* It is a place where old cultural practices are still alive. At Kosi Bay, the local population has been using the same kinds of fish traps for the last 700 years. Music and craft play a central role in the lives of communities surrounding the park.

* Maputaland is home to five cultural groups (Zulu, Swazi, Shangaan, Tonga and a relict group of Gonda speakers).

ACCOMMODATION ST LUCIA

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