Lake Malawi National Park
Lake Malawi National Park | |
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UNESCO world heritage | |
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Cape MacLear in the National Park |
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National territory: | Malawi |
Type: | nature |
Criteria : | vii, ix, x |
Surface: | 9,400 ha |
Reference No .: | 289 |
UNESCO region : | Africa |
History of enrollment | |
Enrollment: | 1984 (session 8) |
The Malawi National Park ( English Lake Malawi National Park ) is a national park in Malawi near Monkey Bay on the south bank of the Malawi . The 88 km² park includes part of the lake, the Khumba peninsula and twelve smaller islands. He is on the list of since 1984 UNESCO - World Heritage out.
In 1934, forest reserves and bird sanctuaries were established on some of the islands. This protection was extended to the hills of Cape MacLear , Mwenya and Nkhudzi in 1972 . Today's national park was established on November 24, 1980. There is a Ministry of Fisheries research station in Monkey Bay.
Lake Malawi contains the greatest wealth of fish in the world. Around half of the estimated 1000 species occur in the park area, of which more than 90% are native to this area. This is the result of an evolutionary adaptation that can only be studied on a comparable scale in the Galapagos Islands . The lake contains 30% of all known species of cichlid , especially the mbuna . All but 5 species are endemic .
Limiting the sanctuary for fish to just a small part of the lake in which they live may seem strange. In fact, many of them, especially the Mbuna, are tied to very specific islands and coastlines through their way of life.
See also
Web links
- Entry on the UNESCO World Heritage Center website ( English and French ).
- Data sheet of the UNEP-WCMC ( Memento from February 19, 2002 in the web archive archive.today )
Coordinates: 14 ° 2 ′ 0 ″ S , 34 ° 53 ′ 0 ″ E