Two Southern African sites added to UNESCO World Heritage List: Maputo National Park (Mozambique) & Mount Mulanje (Malawi)!

During its 47th session in Paris, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee has added two new sites in Southern Africa to the prestigious World Heritage List: Maputo National Park in Mozambique and the Mount Mulanje Cultural Landscape in Malawi. This recognition marks a significant milestone for both countries and underscores the region's outstanding natural and cultural heritage.

Maputo National Park – Mozambique’s coastal jewel

Located in southern Mozambique, Maputo National Park is a breathtaking mosaic of coastal lakes, wetlands, sand dunes, and savanna. Formerly known as the Maputo Special Reserve, this conservation area is part of the Lubombo Transfrontier Conservation Area, which spans across Mozambique, South Africa, and Eswatini. The park is home to a rich diversity of wildlife, including elephants, hippos, antelope species, and more than 400 bird species.
Maputo National Park's inscription as a UNESCO World Heritage Site acknowledges not only its ecological significance but also the successful cross-border conservation efforts that have restored biodiversity and promoted community-led ecotourism. This designation is expected to bolster sustainable tourism in Mozambique, drawing global attention to the country’s protected natural areas.

Mount Mulanje Cultural Landscape – Malawi’s sacred mountain

Rising dramatically above the plains of southern Malawi, Mount Mulanje is more than just a mountain – it is a cultural and spiritual heartland. Known locally as the “Island in the Sky,” the massif holds deep cultural and spiritual significance for local communities, who have passed down oral traditions, rituals, and sacred beliefs tied to the landscape for generations.
The Mount Mulanje Cultural Landscape combines rich biodiversity with cultural heritage, including sacred forests, ceremonial sites, and traditional knowledge systems related to forest management and conservation. Its addition to the World Heritage List highlights the importance of preserving intangible heritage and recognizes the harmonious relationship between people and nature.

The inclusion of these two sites reflects a growing recognition of Southern Africa’s ecological and cultural wealth on the global stage. It also opens new opportunities for sustainable tourism development, job creation, and community empowerment in both Mozambique and Malawi.
As part of the UNESCO World Heritage family, Maputo National Park and Mount Mulanje will benefit from international support for conservation, increased visibility, and heightened protection against environmental threats. 

UNESCO adds sites in South Africa to World Heritage List!

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has recently added more sites in South Africa to its prestigious World Heritage List. On 26 July 2024, the 46th Session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee proclaimed World Heritage status for two serial properties in South Africa, namely "The Human Rights, Liberation and Reconciliation: Nelson Mandela Legacy Sites" and "The Emergence of Modern Human Behaviour: The Pleistocene Occupation Sites of South Africa". The inscription of these two serial properties, increases South Africa's list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites to 12.

"The Human Rights, Liberation and Reconciliation: Nelson Mandela Legacy Sites"
The serial property represents the legacy of the South African struggle for human rights, liberation and reconciliation. It consists of fourteen component parts located around the country, all related to South Africa's political history in the 20th century. The sites include the following:
- The Union Buildings
- Constitution Hill
- Liliesleaf
- Sharpeville (comprising three component parts)
- Walter Sisulu Square
- 16 June 1976: The Streets of Orlando West
- University of Fort Hare and ZK Mathews House (comprising two component parts)
- Mqhekezweni
- Waaihoek
- Ohlange

"The Emergence of Modern Human Behaviour: The Pleistocene Occupation Sites of South Africa"
This serial property contributes to the understanding of the origin of behaviourally modern humans, their cognitive abilities and cultures, and the climatic transitions that they survived. It is composed of three dispersed archaeological sites: the Diepkloof Rock Shelter close to Elands Bay, the Pinnacle Point Site Complex in Mossel Bay (Western Cape) and the Sibhudu Cave in KwaDukuza (KwaZulu Natal).

KwaZulu-Natal: iSimangaliso Wetland Park has increased gate access fees!

The management of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, South Africa's first UNESCO World Heritage Site, has increased the gate access fees as well as the fees for activity permits on 01 December 2018. The gate access fee at Bhangazi Gate (Eastern Shores), Ophansi Gate, eMshopi Gate (uMkuze), Dukuduku Gate and Nholzi Gate (Western Shores) is now R51.00 for adults and R37.00 for children (under the age of 12). The vehicle entry charge got increased to R61.00 (1 - 5 vehicles). The fee at Sodwana Bay is R23.00/R19.00/R32.00, at Coastal Forest R28.00/R16.00/R29.00, at Maphelange and False Bay R45.00/R27.00/R20 and at Kosi Bay R55.00/R28.00/R56.00. The Community Conservation Levy remains at R5.00/person. For more information, including the increased fees for activity permits, see the download section of iSimangaliso's website.

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Ein Beitrag geteilt von Isimangaliso Wetland Park (@isimangaliso) am Okt 22, 2018 um 7:26 PDT

South Africa: The Barberton Makhonjwa Mountains declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site!

The Barberton Makhonjwa Mountains in Mpumalanga is South Africa's 10th UNESCO World Heritage Site. The site was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site today (02 July 2018) at the 42nd World Heritage Committee Session of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) held in Manama, Bahrain. The Barberton Makhonjwa Mountains is a range of small mountains and hills that covers an area of 120 km by 60 km. It provides the world with evidence on life formation that dates back more than 3 billion years. The mountain range has the most remarkable geological evidence of rock layers that formed between 3.2 and 3.5 million years ago. Along with their exceptional geology, the Barberton Makhonjwa Mountains are rich in wild plants, animals and beautiful scenery.

South Africa: The ‡Khomani Cultural Landscape has been inscripted as a World Heritage Site!

At its 41st session taking place in Krakow, Poland (02-12 July 2017), the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) World Heritage Committee has inscripted the ‡Khomani Cultural Landscape in South Africa as a World Heritage Site. The landscape (959,100ha) is located in the Dawid Kruiper District Municipality in the Northern Cape. It covers the entire Kalahari Gemsbok National Park (KGNP) and forms part of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park which is bordered by Botswana and Namibia in the east and west respectively.

The ‡Khomani and related San people are unique in that they descend directly from an ancient population that existed in southern Africa some 150,000 years ago, the ancestors of the entire human race.
The red dunes of the ‡Khomani Cultural Landscape are strongly associated with this unique culture stretching from the Stone Age to the present, thus making it a landscape that has changed little from a time long ago when humans were mainly hunter gatherers.  The ‡Khomani Cultural Landscape has been home to at most a few hundred people who have survived life in the extreme desert landscape of the southern Kalahari through their knowledge of the land. Particular to their practices is their ways of physically defining the land through designated uses of the different parts; how their movements were organised as well as other significant cultural practices. (via https://www.environment.gov.za)

The ‡Khomani Cultural Landscape is South Africa's ninth World Heritage Site. The other eight include the Fossil Hominid Sites of South Africa, Maloti-Drakensberg Park (Transboundary with Lesotho), Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape, Vredefort Dome, Richtersveld Cultural and Botanical Landscape, Robben Island Museum, iSimangaliso Wetland Park and the Cape Floral Region Protected Areas.

World Heritage Sites in Southern Africa >>

South Africa: Cape floral heritage site expands!

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has approved the extension of the Cape Floral Region Protected Areas World Heritage Site. The approval was granted by the 39th Session of UNESCO's World Heritage Committee taking place in Bonn, Germany (28 June - 08 July 2015). The extension almost doubles the size of the world heritage site from 553 000 hectares to 1 094 742 hectares and includes Table Mountain National Park, Agulhas complex, Langeberg complex, Anysberg Nature Reserve, Swartberg complex, Baviaanskloof complex and the Garden Route complex.

The extended Cape Floral Region Protected Areas World Heritage Site is one of the richest areas for plants when compared to any similar sized area in the world. It represents less than 0.5% of the area of Africa but is home to nearly 20% of the continent's flora with some 69% of the 9000 identified plant species being endemic to the area.

World Heritage Sites in Southern Africa >>

The Sterkfontein Caves are open to visitors again

The Sterkfontein Caves, located in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site about 50km northwest of Johannesburg, are open to visitors again since 08 April 2014. The caves were recently closed to the public for routine stability tests, which are undertaken every five years to determine the safety of the tourist attraction.
The Sterkfontein Caves are set of limestone caves where many hominid and other animal fossils, dating back more than 4-million years, have been found over the last few decades. The caves are open to the public from 09h00 to 17h00 every day.

Tour: The Cradle of Humankind + Carnivore Restaurant >>

Namibia gets second World Heritage Site: The Namib Sand Sea

The Namib Sand Sea was declared Namibia's second World Heritage Site during the 37th session of the World Heritage Committee in Cambodia (16 - 27 June 2013). Last year, the Namibia National Commission for UNESCO secretariat submitted the area to the World Conservation Union (IUCN), which is evaluating natural heritage nominations for the World Heritage List on behalf of the World Heritage Committee. Namibia's first natural site to be inscribed on the World Heritage List is part of the Namib-Naukluft National Park, south of the Kuiseb River in central Namibia.

Namib Sand Sea (Namibia) is the only coastal desert in the world that includes extensive dune fields influenced by fog. Covering an area of over three million hectares and a buffer zone of 899,500 hectares, the site is composed of two dune systems, an ancient semi-consolidated one overlain by a younger active one. The desert dunes are formed by the transportation of materials thousands of kilometres from the hinterland, that are carried by river, ocean current and wind. It features gravel plains, coastal flats, rocky hills, inselbergs within the sand sea, a coastal lagoon and ephemeral rivers, resulting in a landscape of exceptional beauty. Fog is the primary source of water in the site, accounting for a unique environment in which  endemic invertebrates, reptiles and mammals adapt to an ever-changing variety of microhabitats and ecological niches. (UNESCOPRESS 21 June 2013)

Namibia's other World Heritage Site is Twyfelfontein, which got inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2007.

To be included on the World Heritage List, sites must be of outstanding universal value and meet at least one out of ten selection criteria. These criteria are explained in the "Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention". Please visit the UNESCO World Heritage Centre's website for more information about the critiria for selection.

Did you know... the Okavango Delta in Botswana is currently not a UNESCO World Heritage Site

update (20 June 2014): Botswana: Okavango Delta to be listed as a World Heritage Site!

update (16 June 2014): The annual meeting of the World Heritage Committee (15 - 25 June 2014) is currently taking place in Doha, Qatar. During this session, the Committee will consider the inscription of 36 sites on UNESCO's World Heritage List and will also examine the state of conservation of more than 100 of the 981existing World Heritage properties. One of the the 36 sites is the Okavango Delta in Botswana. Fingers crossed! We will keep you posted!

update (23 Sept 2013): According to UNESCO culture specialist Damir Dijakovic, the Okavango Delta is on course to become a World Heritage Site. A team of experts from the International Union for Conservation and Nature (IUCN) are scheduled to visit Botswana in October 2013

update (10 Sept 2013): Fantastic news just came in via the offical facebook page of the Government of Botswana! Botswana has finally nominated the Okavango Delta as a World Heritage Site having prepared and submitted a (complete) nomination dossier to the UNESCO World Heritage Centre for consideration. The nomination is now getting evaluated by the International Council on Monuments and Sites and the World Conservation Union, which then make their recommendations to the World Heritage Committee. Once a site has been nominated and evaluated, it is up to the intergovernmental World Heritage Committee to make the final decision on its inscription. Once a year, the Committee meets to decide which sites will be inscribed on the World Heritage List. It can also defer its decision and request further information on sites from the States Parties.

The government of Botswana applied for UNESCO World Heritage Status for the Okavango Delta about a year ago in October 2011, but due to requests for additional maps and information by the UNESCO World Heritage Center the nomination of the Delta got delayed until February 2013. After the nomination, a UNESCO Site Selection Committee will visit the Okavango Delta in preparation for declaration as a UNESCO Natural World Heritage Site in February 2014.

Once the Okavango Delta is an official UNESCO World Heritage Site it can obtain funds from the World Heritage Fund and, more importantly, it will be legally protected by the "Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage".

II. National Protection and International Protection of the Cultural and Natural Heritage
Article 4
Each State Party to this Convention recognizes that the duty of ensuring the identification, protection, conservation, presentation and transmission to future generations of the cultural and natural heritage referred to in Articles 1 and 2 and situated on its territory, belongs primarily to that State. It will do all it can to this end, to the utmost of its own resources and, where appropriate, with any international assistance and co-operation, in particular, financial, artistic, scientific and technical, which it may be able to obtain. [src.]

The video above is the trailer for the film Okavango. The film's obejective is to ensure that the world understands the importance of the ecological services provided by the Okavango wetland ecosystem before it disappears, and to activate its audience to help achieve UNESCO World Heritage Status. Declaration will not ensure the Okavango Delta remains untouched with the entire catchment vulnerable to development. The film will celebrate the intrinsic value of the vast untouched catchment in Angola that sends down the annual floods to this globally important ecosystem that is visible from space – an emerald gem in the middle of the Kalahari. The campaign linked to the film will advocate for a tri–nation (Angola–Namibia–Botswana) World Heritage Site, proper legislative protection, and a commitment to ecotourism as the economic driver for the region. (via okavangofilm.com)

Rwanda: Four genocide memorial sites now on the UNESCO World Heritage ‎List

The UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural organisation, elevated four genocide memorial sites in Rwanda into the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. These sites and memorial centers include the Gisozi Genocide Memorial Site in Kigali, the Ntarama Genocide Memorial Site in the Bugesera District as well as the Murambi Genocide Memorial Centre in the Murambi district in southern Rwanda and the Bisesero Genocide Memorial Site in the Karongi District in the country's Western Province.
To be included on the World Heritage List, sites must be of outstanding universal value and meet at least one out of ten selection criteria. These criteria are explained in the "Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention". Please visit the UNESCO World Heritage Centre's website for more information about the critiria for selection.

Namibia: "Namib Sand Sea" submitted for nomination as a World Heritage Site

update (19 Feb 2013): Namibian newspaper "New Era" is again reporting about the possible declaration of the Namib Sand Sea as a World Heritage Site in its online edition (19 Feb 2013). According to the newspaper, an UNESCO evaluation mission visited the Namib Sand Sea in September 2012 and also submitted a report to the Board of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), but will only by June 2013 let Namibia know if site will get declared a World Heritage Site.

Namibia's newspaper "New Era" is reporting in its online edition (17 April 2012) that Namibia has submitted the "Namib Sand Sea" for nomination as a World Heritage Site. The newspaper qoutes the Chairperson of the Namibia National Commission for UNESCO, Dr Marius Kudumo, saying that the nomination dossier has already been sent to the World Conservation Union (IUCN), which is evaluating natural heritage nominations, and that it is expected to be considered by the World Heritage Committee in 2013.

The "Namib Sand Sea" covers an area of about 34,000km² and lies within the Namib-Naukluft National Park, south of the Kuiseb River in central Namibia. It is one of the world's oldest and largest sand deserts and known for its vast panoramas of majestic dune-scapes.
Twyfelfontein, which was declared as a World Heritage Site in 2007, is currently Namibia's only official World Heritage Site.
To be included on the World Heritage List, sites must be of outstanding universal value and meet at least one out of ten selection criteria. These criteria are explained in the     "Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention". Please visit the UNESCO World Heritage Centre's website for more information about the critiria for selection.

The Kenya Lake System in the Great Rift Valley has been added to the UNESCO World Heritage List

The UNESCO World Heritage Committee has inscribed the Kenya Lake System in the Great Rift Valley on UNESCO's World Heritage List. The lake system comprises three inter-linked relatively shallow lakes, namely Lake Bogoria, Lake Nakuru and Lake Elementaita. All lakes are located in the Rift Valley Province of Kenya and are covering a total area of 32,034 hectares.


View Kenya Lake System in the Great Rift Valley in a larger map

The area around the three lakes is home to 13 globally threatened bird species and some of the highest bird diversities in the world. It is the single most important foraging site for the lesser flamingo anywhere, and a major nesting and breeding ground for great white pelicans. The area also features sizeable mammal populations, including black rhino, Rothschild's giraffe, greater kudu, lion, cheetah and wild dogs and is valuable for the study of ecological processes of major importance.