uKhahlamba-Drakensberg Park
Template:Use South African English Template:Short description
Script error: No such module "Infobox".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". The uKhahlamba-Drakensberg Park is a protected area in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa, covering Script error: No such module "convert"., and is part of the Maloti-Drakensberg Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.[1] The park includes Royal Natal National Park, a Provincial park, and covers part of the Drakensberg, an escarpment formation with the highest elevations in southern Africa.
The park and the adjoining Sehlabathebe National Park in the Kingdom of Lesotho are part of the Maloti-Drakensberg Park, which was first declared a World Heritage Site on 30 November 2000. It is described by UNESCO as having "exceptional natural beauty in its soaring basaltic buttresses, incisive dramatic cutbacks, and golden sandstone ramparts... the site’s diversity of habitats protects a high level of endemic and globally threatened species, especially birds and plants... [and it] also contains many caves and rock-shelters with the largest and most concentrated group of paintings in Africa south of the Sahara".[1] The paintings mentioned are parietal art, some of which may date to 40,000 to 100,000 years ago.
Plans to boost tourism in the area include a cable car project by the KZN Economic Development, Tourism, and Environmental Affairs Department.[2]
Fauna
The Drakensberg area is characterised by a high level of endemism of both vertebrates and invertebrates.[3][4]
Conservation
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Most of the higher South African parts of the Drakensberg escarpment formation have been designated as game reserves or wilderness areas. The uKhahlamba-Drakensberg Park is also in the List of Wetlands of International Importance (under the Ramsar Convention). Adjacent to the park is the Cathkin Estates Conservation and Wildlife Sanctuary, which spans Script error: No such module "convert". of virgin grassland and represents the largest privately-owned game park in the KwaZulu-Natal Drakensberg region.[5]
Wilderness areas include Mkhomazi, Upper Mkhomazi, Mlambonja, Mdedelelo, and Mzimkhulu. Mkhomazi Wilderness Area is a region of deserted badlands in the Drakensberg, lying between the Giant's Castle and the Sani Pass.[6]
References
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- ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Barraclough, D.A. & McAlpine, D.K. 2006. Natalimyzidae, a new African family of acalyptrate flies (Diptera: Schizophora: Sciomyzoidea). African Invertebrates 47: 117-134. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Plisko, J.D. 2009. Pre-testical spermathecal pores and unusual setal arrangement in the South African endemic microchaetid earthworms of presumed Gondwanan origin (Oligochaeta: Microchaetidae). African Invertebrates 50 (2): 237-254. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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External links
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