MINISTER of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, announced that SANParks was planning to develop a national park in the Garden Route.
The park will comprise the Tsitsikamma and Wilderness national parks, Knysna National Lake Area, Southern Cape Indigenous Forests and the associated fynbos Mountain Catchment Areas.
The plan is to have SANParks take over all management responsibilities of all the indigenous forests. Once this is in place, the proclamation of all the protected areas as part of the Garden Route National Park will commence.
Van Schalkwyk said: “Currently SANParks has a number of initiatives in place in the region and a variety of tourism products in the pipeline.” He said the programmes SANParks were involved in include eradicating alien vegetation and improving tourist facilities.
