About the park
About iSimangaliso Wetland Park: size, sections and UNESCO
iSimangaliso is a coastline more than a game park: 220 km of beach, dune forest, lakes and swamp from Maphelane to the Mozambique border, with Lake St Lucia, Africa's largest estuarine lake according to the Authority, at its southern end. It has ten sections, eight gate tariffs and, since March 2026, a new operator for its camps.
If you only want the answer
About 3,300 km² on land and, by the Authority's figure, more than 13,000 km² with the marine protected area added in 2019. It became South Africa's first World Heritage Site in December 1999 and was extended in July 2025 to include Mozambique's Maputo National Park. The iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority manages it, Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife handles conservation, and since 1 March 2026 the Authority itself runs the camps.
How big is iSimangaliso?
There is no single right answer, because the published figures measure different things. The terrestrial park is about 3,280 km². The Authority's CEO gave 1,314,539 ha in his 2025 media tour speech, a figure that includes the marine protected area extended offshore in 2019, which the Authority calls South Africa's largest marine protected area and its only marine World Heritage Site. Be wary of any single area figure quoted without saying what it covers.
| Figure | What it measures | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 239,566 ha | The World Heritage property as inscribed in 1999 | Wikipedia |
| About 3,280 km² | The park on land | Wikipedia infobox |
| 1,314,539 ha | Park plus marine protected area | iSimangaliso CEO, 2025 |
| 397,471 ha | The transboundary World Heritage property after the 2025 extension | UNESCO |
Gazettement and World Heritage
The park was put together in the early 1990s from 16 separate land parcels as the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park and renamed iSimangaliso on 1 November 2007. UNESCO inscribed it in December 1999 as South Africa's first World Heritage Site, on three natural criteria: ecological processes, superlative natural phenomena and biodiversity. The Authority itself was constituted under the World Heritage Convention Act 49 of 1999.
On 13 July 2025 the World Heritage Committee extended the property to include Maputo National Park across the border in Mozambique. Its official name is now iSimangaliso Wetland Park – Maputo National Park, at 397,471 ha by UNESCO's figure. IUCN's World Heritage Outlook of 2025 rates the site good with some concerns, naming estuary mouth management, invasive plants and unsustainable fishing among the threats.
The ten sections, south to north
| Section | What it is |
|---|---|
| Maphelane | The south bank of the St Lucia mouth, with the highest vegetated dunes. Closed since late 2018, and 85 km by road from St Lucia. |
| Lake St Lucia and St Lucia town | The estuary, the town and the hippo and crocodile boat cruises. No gate and no fee. |
| Eastern Shores and Cape Vidal | Loop roads between lake and sea, Mission Rocks and the Cape Vidal beach camp, through Bhangazi Gate. |
| Western Shores and Charter's Creek | Grassland and woodland west of the lake, the uMphathe loop and the uMthoma aerial boardwalk. |
| False Bay | The western arm of the lake near Hluhluwe, sand forest and three walking trails of 2, 7 and 9 km. |
| uMkhuze | 38,500 ha of inland savanna, hides and pans, and 420 bird species. |
| Sodwana Bay | The country's diving centre, with 413 campsites and Africa's southernmost coral reefs. |
| Lake Sibaya | South Africa's largest natural freshwater lake, about 7,750 ha, reached on 4x4 sand tracks. |
| Coastal Forest | Mabibi, Rocktail, Lala Nek and Bhanga Nek, the core turtle-nesting beaches. |
| Kosi Bay | Four linked lakes and an estuary mouth at the Mozambique border, with Thonga fish traps. |
Source: iSimangaliso places pages (read 24 Sep 2026). The Authority names ten sections it calls jewels; the gate tariff has eight price lines because Lake St Lucia and Lake Sibaya have no gate.
Who runs iSimangaliso, and what changed in 2026
The iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority manages the park. Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife has handled conservation under a 2001 management agreement, and until 2026 it also ran the camps under a separate 2009 agreement. That second agreement was ended by both sides in 2025, and Ezemvelo says it left all iSimangaliso resorts on 1 March 2026.
This is the governance fact that matters for a visitor now. The Authority runs the camps itself while it tenders them to private operators: a 20-year concession at Charter's Creek whose bids closed on 27 February 2026, and a 30-year concession at Cape Vidal that would replace the log cabins, with Kosi Bay, Mantuma, Manzengwenya and Sodwana also on the list. The CEO cites budget cuts and a push to reduce reliance on outside funding. Expect operators and prices to change during 2026/27.
Comparing iSimangaliso with Hluhluwe-iMfolozi?
The two parks are an hour or so apart and are often combined. Hluhluwe-iMfolozi is a hilly inland game park run by Ezemvelo; iSimangaliso is estuary, beach, reef and swamp, where hippos, crocodiles, turtles and whales are the draw and land game is spread thin. The gate fee is lower here too: R130 per international adult at Cape Vidal on the 2024/25 table, against R320 a day at Hluhluwe-iMfolozi on Ezemvelo's 2025/26 tariff.