Further calls made to declare the region into a national heritage
First held in 1973, World Environment Day raises awareness of the importance of caring for the planet and is celebrated annually on June 5th. It represents a major UN outreach day that is supported by many non-governmental organizations, businesses and government agencies, and supports the environment. Wild Coast Sun is proud to be part of this annual event, which becomes more important each year as climate change and global warming fall.
Located on the beach 2 km from the sun on the wild coast is the fossil and petrified forests of Muzamba that stretch north of the wild coast. When you think of a petrified forest, you may expect to see the forest in a traditional sense, but this forest is taller below it, not next to you. As you walk, you will see 80 million years old fossil trees and sediments on the rocks.
A series of marine fossil layers, actually fossilized logs embedded in the rocks, are exposed to a series of prominent coral reefs just south of the Mutamvuna River, past the Thompson lagoon. The wood was once part of the forest, when rivers were transported downstream and flooded the shallows of the coast.
On June 5, 2025, Wild Coast Sun invited staff, local government members and local conservation groups on a guided tour of the petrified forest. The 40 participants included participants from Winnie Madi Kizera Mandela Local Government, with representatives from the Environmental Sector, Waste Management, Tourism and Foreign Plant Management. Members of SAPS were also there with representatives from local ward counselors, TM Deep Sea Fisheries, Mbizana Guides Association and South Coast Treewalkers.
The tour was led by Sonja Stroud and Tour Guide Mazwe Nzala, an environmentalist from the Wild Coast Sun, with the aim of generating awareness about the importance of fossil beds, finding solutions to protect the site and nominating it as a national heritage.
Back in 2005, Wild Coast Sun previously appointed the region to declare its national heritage along with the South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA).
“We hope that the key stakeholders who took the tour will help support and promote this.”
The reefs, with forests embedded along the coast, extend into a series of cliffs and overhangs known as white caves. This stretch contains another fossil known as the Muzamba fossil.
These are sandstone and limestone deposits that date back 80 million years ago in the late Cretaceous period, and include marine shells, bivalve shells, coiled ammonites, echinoids (sea sea urchins), and incredibly fossilized sea turtles and giant mass shells.
“People who took the tour were surprised by the rich fossils and information they received,” Stroud said. “They had never realised how important the site was, and this gives me a huge sense of accomplishment. On this tour, we reached the hearts of the environmental science community and awakened the EcoWarrior Spirit.”
Wild Coast Sun has long adopted responsible tourism as a management strategy to ensure sustainable management of natural resources.
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