The new Grasslands National Park protects over 10,000 hectares in the Eastern Cape highlands, and it’s the first national park established through biodiversity stewardship.
Eastern Cape, South Africa (10 October 2026) – South Africa has a new national park!
On Friday, 9 October 2026, the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, David Maynier, declared 18 properties in the Eastern Cape, covering a total of 10 225.9242 hectares, as the Grasslands National Park.
The park sits in the Eastern Cape highlands between Nqanqarhu and Rhodes. It will help protect under-represented grassland ecosystems, as well as part of the Eastern Cape Drakensberg Strategic Water Source Area. The grasslands play a part in water security and biodiversity, and they support the farmland that many people in the region make a living from.
This is also the first national park to be established primarily through biodiversity stewardship.
Under this approach, participating landowners keep ownership of their land while committing it to agreed conservation and management arrangements. Conservation-compatible agricultural activities can continue, so the land can be protected while still supporting local livelihoods.
WWF South Africa played a leading role in coordinating the park’s establishment, working alongside the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, SANParks and a range of partners. Management of the park has now been handed to SANParks.
The ambition is for the park to grow over time and evolve into a ‘Mega Living Landscape’ of hundreds of thousands of hectares over the next decade, with the landowners who committed their land as its champions, says WWF South Africa CEO Dr Morné du Plessis.
“The declaration of the Grasslands National Park is an important step in protecting one of South Africa’s least-protected biomes and a strategic water source landscape. It also demonstrates how conservation and compatible productive land use can reinforce one another through voluntary, long-term partnerships,” Minister Maynier said.
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