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Authorities in South Africa have announced plans to rename the country's first World Heritage Site.

The Greater St Lucia Wetland Park is to be renamed the iSimangaliso Wetland Park from November 2007, with officials saying that the new name better reflects the park's unique identity and feel.

iSimangaliso is a descriptive indigenous word that was selected as the name after an extensive consultation process by the National Cabinet.

'We are delighted to have a new name that will take the Park into the future,' said minister Van Schalkwyk.

'The new name is iSimangaliso Wetland Park. This will be integrated with the launch later this year of our new branding linked to specific marketing, advertising and public relations activities.'

The park is home to a whole host of exotic wildlife and former South African president Nelson Mandela once described it in loving terms.

'St Lucia Wetland Park must be the only place on the globe where the world's oldest land mammal (the rhinoceros) and the world's biggest terrestrial mammal (the elephant) share an ecosystem with the world's oldest fish (the coelacanth) and the world's biggest marine mammal (the whale),' he said.

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