Lesotho
Lesotho has four protected areas covering 80 km of land (UNEPWCMC & IUCN, 2019j). One of Lesotho’s parks, the Sehlabathebe National Park is a mixed natural/cultural World Heritage Site and together with the Khahlamba Drakensberg National Park in South Africa forms a transboundary protected area, known as the Maloti Drakensberg Park, a haven for many threatened and endemic species.
In addition to the formally designated protected areas, there are several areas that are either informally designated or proposed for protection in various parts of the country.
Protected and conserved areas designated as global sites of importance |
|
Global designation |
Number of sites |
UNESCO Man and Biosphere Reserves |
0 |
UNESCO World Heritage Sites (Natural or Mixed) |
1 |
Wetlands of International Importance (Ramsar sites) |
1 |
Source ((Ramsar, 2019; UNESCO, 2019a, 2019b)
Priority areas for conservation |
|
Designation |
Number of sites |
Alliance for Zero Extinction sites |
0 |
Important Bird & Biodiversity Areas |
6 |
Key Biodiversity Areas |
0 |
(AZE Secretariat, 2019; BirdLife International, 2019c, 2019a)