Addo now boasts Big Seven

Visitors to the Addo Elephant National Park will be able to see the big five plus whales and great white sharks, due to the addition of the St Croix and Bird Islands to the sanctuary.

"Visitors to Addo will now be able to experience, for the first time ever in South Africa, the big seven in one conservation area," Minister of Environment Affairs and Tourism, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, said at the park on Sunday.

The new marine area also cemented the park's eastern boundary in Algoa Bay, providing protection to the internationally important populations of Cape Gannet and African Penguins.

"It also brings the islands' threatened perlemoen stocks under the control of SA National Parks, which we believe will boost enforcement, clamping down on poaching," van Schalkwyk said.

The minister also opened the R6.5m Matyholweni rest camp in the southern part of the park.

The Mayibuye Ndlovu Development Trust, a community forum representing eight communities surrounding the park, was to receive between six and 12% of the gross revenue generated by the new rest camp.

"Conservation is most sustainable when it is linked to the development of communities," van Schalkwyk said.