More than 379,000ha of land have been added to South Africa's national parks system since 1994, including five new national parks, and environmental affairs minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk recently announced during a budget speech that a further 250,000ha will be added soon.
"This will include the Knysna Forests and Soetkraal - which will become part of Tsitsikamma, the QwaQwa Nature Reserve which will be added to Golden Gate Highlands, and a number of other recently acquired areas in Addo, Namaqua, Mapungubwe, Agulhas and the Karoo National Park."
A focus area for the department is to conserve biomes that are not well represented in the national parks, and in line with this they plan on formally declaring portions of the new Wild Coast National Park before the end of their financial year.
Learn more about South African Nature Reserves
