Wilderness Lakes - Ramsar Wetland in Western Cape

LensTracks produced all the videos for the SA Ramsar project between 2014 and 2017. The videos were published on the SA Ramsar YouTube channel, but are now also made available on the LensTracks YouTube channel.

Wilderness is a small coastal town next to the N2 national route in the Western Cape, South Africa. It is part of the bigger Garden Route National Park that stretches from Wildernis to Tsitsikamma further east. The garden route is the third most popular tourist destination in South Africa after the Kruger National Park and Cape Town.

The Wilderness Lakes received its status as Wetlands of International Importance on 28 June 1991. The wetlands, which are now managed by South African National Parks (SAN Parks) according to the Ramsar convention, include the Serpentine river, Island Lake, Langvlei and Rondevlei. These lakes, each a wetland by itself, form a link in the chain of the Touw River that meets the sea on the 18 kilometre stretch of beach at Wilderness. These wetlands support 285 endemic plants, 32 fish species, up to 300 bird species, and a variety of invertebrate. Due to the slow moving water through the system, the lakes also play a major role in flood control.