The Greater Addo Elephant National Park is a megapark in the making, and consists of the following parks: *

Addo Elephant National Park Addo Elephant National Park (AENP) is a diverse wildlife conservation park situated close to Gqeberha in South Africa and is one of the country's 20 national parks. It currently ranks third in size after Kruger National Park and the Kgalagadi T ...

Woody Cape Nature Reserve The Woody Cape Nature Reserve is a conservation area in Eastern Cape The Eastern Cape ( ; ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, and its largest city is Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth). Due to its climate and nineteen ...

* Marine Protection Area ** Bird Island ** St Croix Island

Objectives

The park is intended to guarantee long term conservation of the regional biodiversity and to reduce threats to the biodiversity by effective and efficient management, and to promote a sustainable and inclusive eco-tourism industry in the region.

Funding

The

Global Environment Facility The Global Environment Facility (GEF) is a multilateral environmental fund that provides grants and blended finance for projects related to biodiversity, climate change, international waters, land degradation, persistent organic pollutants (P ...

(GEF) funded a research process to determine the ideal choice of land for inclusion in the park. The land classes in the proposed area were identified in a conservation planning framework, and ecological processes. potential threats and vulnerability of each land class was considered, along with conservation targets for fauna populations.

Extent

The park extends between Woody Cape across the

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in northeastern Essex, England. It is the second-largest settlement in the county, with a population of 130,245 at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 Census. The demonym is ''Colcestrian''. Colchester occupies the ...

area, the original elephant enclosure, the Nythani concession area, large parts of the Zuurberg mountain range to the

Darlington Dam Darlington Dam, also referred to as Lake Mentz, is a gravity type dam situated in the Addo Elephant National Park confining the Sundays River, near Kirkwood, in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. History The primary objective of building the dam w ...

area and Kuzuko contractual area to the R400 road between

Jansenville Jansenville is a town in Sarah Baartman District Municipality in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. The town is on the Sundays River, 87 km south of Graaff-Reinet. Laid out on the farm Vergenoegd in 1854, it was proclaimed in 1855 a ...

and

Paterson Paterson may refer to: People *Paterson (surname) *Paterson (given name) Places Australia *Paterson, New South Wales * Paterson River, New South Wales *Division of Paterson, an electoral district in New South Wales * Paterson, Queensland, a loc ...

.The final extent of the park is expected to cover about 240 000 hectares of land and 120 000 hectares of marine protected area. A long term goal is to consolidate the terrestrial part of the park by linking up sections with corridors to help manage the park in a state as close to natural as practicable.

Biomes

The expanded park includes parts of five of South Africa's nine

biome A biome () is a distinct geographical region with specific climate, vegetation, and animal life. It consists of a biological community that has formed in response to its physical environment and regional climate. In 1935, Tansley added the ...

s. These are

Albany thickets The Albany thickets is an ecoregion of dense woodland in southern South Africa, which is concentrated around the Albany region of the Eastern Cape (whence the region's name originates). Geography The thickets grow on well-drained sandy soils i ...

fynbos Fynbos (; , ) is a small belt of natural shrubland or heathland vegetation located in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa. The area is predominantly coastal and mountainous, with a Mediterranean climate. The fynbos ...

forest A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, ...

Nama Karoo Nama Karoo is a xeric shrubland ecoregion located on the central plateau of South Africa and Namibia. It occupies most of the interior of the western half of South Africa and extends into the southern interior of Namibia. Climate The climate o ...

and the Indian Ocean coastal belt.

Biodiversity

The park extends protection of the traditional big five game, the

southern right whale The southern right whale (''Eubalaena australis'') is a baleen whale, one of three species classified as right whales belonging to the genus ''Eubalaena''. Southern right whales inhabit oceans south of the Equator, between the latitudes of 20� ...

and

great white shark The great white shark (''Carcharodon carcharias''), also known as the white shark, white pointer, or simply great white, is a species of large Lamniformes, mackerel shark which can be found in the coastal surface waters of all the major ocea ...

References

{{coord missing, South Africa Protected areas of the Eastern Cape