South African National Parks has earmarked millions of rands for infrastructure development in the West Coast National Park.

This comes after the allocation of an additional R700 million (€34.2m) for infrastructure investment over the next three years to SANParks.

This allocation by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and Environment is intended to improve the visitor experience at various national parks under SANParks’ management, and West Coast National Park is one of the parks that has received an injection of more than R31 million (€1.5m) to upgrade the park’s infrastructure and tourism facilities to ultimately improve visitors’ experience in the park and also to boost income generation.

The following projects have been highlighted for the park:

• Construction of the R27 Entrance Gate, West Coast National Park.
• Construction of the Park Management Offices.
• Geelbek Activity Node.
• Kraalbaai Management Offices and Public Ablutions.
• Duinepos – refurbishment of 11 chalets.

These projects will be rolled out over the next three years with handover envisaged for 2026.

The entrance gate next to the R27/West Coast Road is one of the first that will be rolled out. This is the main entrance gate, and is also under the most pressure during peak season.

“This development has received much praise from the public because the upgrade will drastically improve the waiting times at the gate during peak season,” SANParks said in a press release.

Immediately after the completion of the gate upgrade, the construction work will resume for the Duinepos chalets upgrade.

“These are 11 chalets based in the heart of the park and they’re one of the favourite campsites inside the park and are most loved by the public,” SANParks continued.

The chalets have been non-operational due to the impact of the COVID pandemic, The remaining three planned developments will be rolled out right after the Duinepos chalets upgrade.

Review of West Coast National Park

The park has also reached a noteworthy milestone, with its ten-year review set to commence this year (this takes place once every decade).

The purpose of the review process is to assess the Management Plan in terms of its planned actions or objectives and the implementation of these actions.

The public participation process with key stakeholders and interested and affected parties will commence on April 23 at the town hall in Langebaan. Several other internal and external engagements over the next few months will follow this.

The current management plan focuses mainly on the terrestrial section of the park, with some information on the Marine Protected Area (MPA). However, with the review of the current plan, much more attention will be given to the MPA in the form of a separate MPA Management Plan.

“The park’s MPA, which consists of the Langebaan Lagoon, four offshore islands, wetland/salt marshes, and the 25km beach, is not only of great interest to SANParks but also to the greater community and public at large.

“The MPA is of significant importance to the park and has great biodiversity value. It is the breeding ground for countless bird and fish species, supports the livelihoods of the traditional net fishers in Langebaan, and is also a much-loved area for water sports users and tourists,” SANParks concluded.