South African National Parks

South African National Parks
SANParks
Agency overview
Formed	1926
Jurisdiction	Government of South Africa
Headquarters	643 Leyds Street, Muckleneuk, Pretoria 25°45′59″S 28°12′8″E
Employees	3,367
Annual budget	R985,804,000
Minister responsible	Buyelwa Sonjica, Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs
Agency executives	Kuseni Dlamini, Chairperson of the Board Dr. David Mabunda, CEO
Parent agency	Department of Environmental Affairs
Key documents	National Parks Act, 1976 National Environmental Management: Protected Areas Act, 2003
Website
www.sanparks.org

South African National Parks (SANParks) is the body responsible for managing South Africa's national parks. SANParks was formed in 1926, and currently manages 19 parks consisting of 3,700,000 hectares (37,000 km²), about 3% of the total area of South Africa.

The best known park is Kruger National Park, which is also the oldest (proclaimed in 1898), and the largest, at nearly 2,000,000 hectares (20,000 km²). The Kruger Park and Table Mountain National Park are two of South Africa's most visited tourist attractions.

List of parks administered by SANParks

Addo

Agulhas

Augrabies

Bontebok

Camdeboo

Garden Route

Golden Gate

Karoo

Kgalagadi

Kruger

Mapungubwe

Marakele

Mokala

Mountain Zebra

Namaqua

Table Mountain

Tankwa Karoo

West Coast

|Ai-|Ais/Richtersveld

South African National Parks

The following are designated as National Parks of South Africa:

• Greater Addo Elephant National Park (Eastern Cape), including Addo Elephant National Park, the Woody Cape Nature Reserve and the Marine Protection Areas of Bird Island and St Croix Island
• Agulhas National Park
• Ai-Ais/Richtersveld Transfrontier Park with the Richtersveld portion managed by South African National Parks, and the Fish River Canyon portion managed by the Namibian Ministry of Environment and Tourism
• Augrabies Falls National Park
• Bontebok National Park
• Camdeboo National Park
• Garden Route National Park
  • Knysna National Lake Area
  • Tsitsikamma National Park
  • Wilderness National Park
• Golden Gate Highlands National Park, including the now defunct QwaQwa National Park
• Karoo National Park
• Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park comprising the Kalahari Gemsbok Park in South Africa and the Gemsbok National Park and Mabuasehube Game Reserve in Botswana
• Kruger National Park
• Mapungubwe National Park
• Marakele National Park
• Mokala National Park
• Mountain Zebra National Park
• Namaqua National Park
• Table Mountain National Park
• Tankwa Karoo National Park
• West Coast National Park

See also

• Protected areas of South Africa
• Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife - The body responsible for maintaining wilderness areas and public nature reserves in KwaZulu-Natal
• Eastern Cape Parks - The body responsible for maintaining wilderness areas and public nature reserves in the Eastern Cape
• Gauteng Department of Agriculture, Conservation, Environment and Land Affairs - The government department responsible for maintaining wilderness areas and public nature reserves in Gauteng.
• Mpumalanga Parks Board - The body responsible for maintaining wilderness areas and public nature reserves in Mpumalanga
• North West Parks and Tourism Board - The body responsible for maintaining wilderness areas and public nature reserves in the North West
• CapeNature - The body responsible for maintaining wilderness areas and public nature reserves in the Western Cape

External links

• South African National Parks
• Interview with Head, Business Development, South African National Parks