ISimangaliso park and beaches now open
GAME reserve enthusiasts jumped for joy on World Oceans Day (8 June), as the day signalled the reopening of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park after 74 days of lockdown shutdown.
All gates to the park – Eastern Shores (Cape Vidal), Western Shores (Dukuduku), uMkhuze Game Reserve, Sodwana Bay and Kosi Bay – opened to visitors for self-drive excursions and fishing, the only exception being chartered fishing which remains prohibited under Level 3.
This was the first time since this World Heritage Site was proclaimed 20 years ago that its gates had to be closed to the public.
‘We welcome government’s decision to gradually allow guests to begin visiting the park,’ said iSimangaliso CEO, Sibusiso Bukhosini.
‘Ensuring the safety of our staff, contractors and visitors to the park is of utmost importance.’
This year’s World Oceans Day theme is ‘Innovation for a sustainable ocean’.
iSimangaliso, which includes the country’s most north-eastern coastline of 220km, is currently South Africa’s only UNESCO marine World Heritage Site and shares a Marine Protected Area (MPA) with Mozambique.
Together they form Africa’s largest trans-frontier MPA.
With an additional 970 366ha of ocean now falling under the iSimangaliso MPA, the park’s combined terrestrial and marine area is some 1 328 900ha (or
13 289 square kilometres).
This makes iSimangaliso the second largest protected area in the country after the Kruger National Park.
While the lockdown caused the loss of much revenue in the form of gate takings and accommodation, the organisation said a positive outcome of this was that the park has been able to rehabilitate itself.
The game is more relaxed and grazing much closer to the roads, which means visitors can expect better sightings than before the lockdown.