The long story

The history of iSimangaliso Wetland Park

Name: iSimangaliso Wetland Park
Address: South Africa

iSimangaliso was stitched together from sixteen separate pieces of land in the early 1990s, became South Africa's first World Heritage Site in 1999 and took its present name in 2007. The people of its coast have fished the Kosi lakes for far longer than any of that.

If you only want the answer

Thonga fishing traditions at Kosi Bay go back more than 700 years, according to the Authority, and uMkhuze was first protected in about 1912. Sixteen land parcels were consolidated in the early 1990s as the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park, inscribed by UNESCO in December 1999 and renamed iSimangaliso on 1 November 2007. In July 2025 the World Heritage property was extended to include Mozambique's Maputo National Park, and since 1 March 2026 iSimangaliso, not Ezemvelo, runs the camps.

Fish traps and the Thonga coast

Long before any park, the people of the far north fished the Kosi lakes with reed traps called utshwayelo. iSimangaliso says these Thonga fishing traditions have endured for more than 700 years. They are the oldest human story the park tells, and the one you can still see from a boat.

The community link runs through the modern park too. The site rights for Kosi Forest Lodge were granted to the uMvumamvubu Development Trust in 1995, and Thonga Beach Lodge at Mabibi, which opened in 2004, is two-thirds owned by the Mabibi community, which leases it to the operator.

The first reserves

The park is built on older reserves. uMkhuze, 38,500 ha of savanna and fever-tree forest inland, is described in an undated iSimangaliso news item as 107 years old, which puts its first protection at about 1912. For decades Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife ran it as a separate game reserve, which is why road signs still say Mkhuze Game Reserve.

On the coast, the Natal Parks Board began monitoring nesting turtles in 1963, one of the longest-running turtle programmes in the world. Leatherbacks have risen from fewer than 10 a year in 1966 to more than 70, and loggerhead nests from fewer than 250 in the early 1960s to about 1,700. In St Lucia, the Crocodile Centre was established in 1979 by Tony Pooley, and is run by Ezemvelo.

From sixteen parcels to one park

In the early 1990s sixteen separate land parcels were consolidated as the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park. In December 1999 UNESCO inscribed it as South Africa's first World Heritage Site, under three natural criteria: ecological processes, superlative natural phenomena and biodiversity. The iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority was constituted under the World Heritage Convention Act 49 of 1999.

A 2001 management agreement left conservation with Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, and a 2009 service level agreement let Ezemvelo run the tourism facilities as well. On 1 November 2007 the park was renamed iSimangaliso. In 2019 the marine protected area was extended offshore, making it, in the Authority's words, South Africa's largest marine protected area.

A coelacanth off Sodwana

In 2000 coelacanths were found in the Jesser Canyon off Sodwana Bay, according to iSimangaliso. They live at around 100 m and deeper, well beyond recreational diving.

The fight over the estuary mouth

For two decades the mouth of Lake St Lucia has been one of South Africa's most argued-over environmental questions. For years the Mfolozi River was diverted away from the lake to protect sugarcane farms, and the mouth stayed closed; in June 2002 drought closed it for four years and nine months. Farmers want it open to stop back-flooding, and some scientists want the Mfolozi reconnected so that the system can open itself.

iSimangaliso's own releases give the recent record. Equipment moved in on 4 January 2021 to breach the mouth artificially, and it closed again naturally after about six months. On 14 April 2022 it breached naturally after heavy rain, and the minister tabled an expert panel report two weeks later. On 3 April 2023 an emergency application by sugar planters to dredge the channel was refused. The mouth closed on 25 August 2024 and breached naturally again on 10 January 2025, with the lake at 2.66 m above mean sea level that day. No later official statement had been published by late September 2026.

Floods, closures and camps that did not come back

Not every camp survived. Fanies Island on the Western Shores has been closed since about 2004 after water problems. Maphelane, at the southern tip, was closed by Ezemvelo towards the end of 2018 after flooding of the road between the gate and the beach, and no reopening notice has been published, although iSimangaliso's accommodation page still lists it. Cape Vidal reopened on 31 October 2023 after flood damage.

2025: a transboundary World Heritage Site

On 13 July 2025 the World Heritage Committee extended the property across the border to include Mozambique's Maputo National Park. Its name is now iSimangaliso Wetland Park – Maputo National Park, and UNESCO gives the combined World Heritage property as 397,471 ha. That figure measures the inscribed property only; with its marine protected area the Authority puts the South African park at about 1.31 million hectares.

The same year the 2009 service level agreement with Ezemvelo was ended by mutual consent. Ezemvelo keeps the conservation mandate, and iSimangaliso took over the eco-tourism function: Ezemvelo exited all iSimangaliso resorts on 1 March 2026. The Authority's stated plan is to hand the camps to private operators, first on short leases and then through public-private partnerships for Charter's Creek, Kosi Bay, Mantuma, Manzengwenya, Cape Vidal and Sodwana Bay. The Charter's Creek tender closed on 27 February 2026 with no award found, and a 30-year Cape Vidal concession was scheduled to go to tender in March 2026. In July 2026 The Mercury reported a sharp drop in Ezemvelo's revenue after the split.

These governance facts are as the research dossier found them on 24 September 2026. Leases, tenders and booking arrangements were changing month by month, and they may have moved since.

What you can see of the history today

The Thonga fish traps in the Kosi lakes, visited with a local operator from Kosi Bay.
The turtle beaches between Kosi Mouth and Mabibi, still monitored every season since 1963.
The St Lucia Crocodile Centre in town, founded in 1979.
The St Lucia estuary mouth, open or closed depending on the year's rain.
uMkhuze, first protected in about 1912, with its hides and fig forest.