Creating the ultimate birder-friendly destination

02-08-2005

A new partnership between BirdLife South Africa’s Zululand Birding Route and the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park Authority is set to develop South Africa’s first World Heritage Site into a global birding destination. The Zululand Birding Route is itself a partnership venture, supported by the mining company Rio Tinto and its local Zululand subsidiary, Richards Bay Minerals (RBM).

Recognising the eco-tourism potential of the area, the Wetlands Park Authority and the Zululand Birding Route will be facilitating the development of a plan to create facilities and services that will enhance birders’ experience of the area whilst also ensuring the long term conservation of the phenomenal avian diversity of the Wetland Park’s Important Bird Areas (IBAs).

"We want to involve birders to help us to identify practical ways that we can make the Wetland Park, which makes up one third of the KwaZulu-Natal coastline, more accessible and birder-friendly for locals and visitors from further afield. Our partnership with the Zululand Birding Route and BirdLife South Africa is an important first step towards achieving this," said Andrew Zaloumis, the CEO of the Wetland Park Authority.

BirdLife South Africa

Lake Bhangazi – part of the Greater St. Lucia Wetland Park
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"The Wetlands Park must be the only place on the globe where the oldest land mammal [rhinoceros] and the world's biggest terrestrial mammal [elephant] share an ecosystem with the worlds oldest fish [coelacanth] and the world's biggest marine mammal [whale]." —Nelson Mandela

Duncan Pritchard of the Zululand Birding Route added: "Our aim is to recommend the development of hides, boardwalks and other infrastructure that would position the Greater St Lucia Wetlands Park as simply an unmissable birding experience This would also assist us in positioning the Zululand Birding Route to be the ultimate birding experience!"

The 260,000 hectare Greater St Lucia Wetland Park was inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage list in December 1999 for its outstanding natural values. These are exceptional biodiversity, ecological processes and superlative scenic beauty. A birder on the eastern shores of Lake St Lucia can literally walk through marine habitats, dune forest, acacia scrub, coastal grasslands, swamp forest, mangroves and various freshwater systems in a matter of a few hours… it is this variety of habitat that makes this area such a gem for birders.

BirdLife South Africa

The Mkhuze River is a stakeout for the localised Pel's Fishing-owl
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"This partnership between the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park Authority and BirdLife South Africa will protect four Important Bird Areas, create opportunities for local bird guides and add value for tourists, especially birders, who visit the Greater St Lucia Park." —Dr Gerhard Verdoorn, Director, BirdLife South Africa

The Wetland Park is home to some of South Africa’s finest birding areas such as uMkhuze and the eastern shores of Lake St Lucia. These sites host a range of endemics such as Neergaard's Sunbird Nectarinia neergardi, Rudd's Apalis Apalis ruddi, Zululand Batis (Woodward’s Batis) Batis fratrum and Lemon-breasted Seedeater Serinus citrinipectus alongside specials such as Southern Banded Snake-eagle Circaetus fasciolatus, Pel's Fishing-owl Scotopelia peli, Livingstone’s Turaco Tauraco livingstonii and phenomenal congregations of waterfowl.

The Wetland Park Authority and their conservation partners, Ezemvelo Wildlife, have embarked on an ambitious programme to restore the area to its natural state, laying the foundations for tourism and economic development in the area. Over 12,000 hectares of commercial plantations have already been removed from the eastern shores. Dune and wetland rehabilitation programmes are currently underway. In addition to restocking the Wetland Park with wildlife, such as the reintroduction of two packs of wild dogs in May this year, the Wetland Park Authority is also embarking on an extensive branding and marketing exercise for the park, and is currently identifying access and infrastructure issues and restrictions.