South African National Parks
type of protected natural area

South African National Parks (SANParks) is the body responsible for managing South Africa's national parks. SANParks was formed in 1926, and currently manages 21 national parks and 10 marine protected areas, totalling over 44,595 km2 (17,218 sq mi).
Many parks offer a variety of accommodations. The best-known park is Kruger National Park, which is also the oldest (proclaimed in 1898), and the largest, at nearly 20,000 km2 (7,700 sq mi). Kruger National Park and Table Mountain National Park are two of South Africa's most visited tourist attractions.
Though not designated as National Parks, other protected areas exist, such as game and nature reserves.
List of parks administered by SANParks
The following are designated as National Parks of South Africa:
Location of national parks
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.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1364273. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1926 and 1898.
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This entry incorporates text from “South African National Parks” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.