| Summary: | In 1931 an area of 4,517 hectares was declared a national park to protect a remnant herd of 12 elephants, the only remaining elephants in the Eastern Cape. Effective conservation measures not only protected the elephants, but also the only remaining buffalo in the Cape Province. Conflict with neighbouring farmers and collisions with trains limited the population increase for two decades. In 1954 a herd of 20 elephants was eventually confined by the first elephant-proof fence in Africa. Preservation of large mammals inadvertently resulted in the conservation of the endemic, subtropical thicket. As the elephants increased in number, the enclosure had to be enlarged from its original 2,270 hectares. Two state forest reserves were transferred to the national park in 1985 and 2002. A coherent expansion blueprint, completed in 1997, succeeded in attracting funding from government and international sources and increased the size of the national park by 36-fold. Tourist facilities have been considerably increased and two new rest camps and two tented camps have been added. Visitor numbers increased by 145% between 2004 and 2019, while unit nights increased by 65%, which indicates that many tourists are staying in accommodation outside the AENP. The AENP illustrates important shifts which have occurred in conservation in South Africa in nine decades, with less emphasis being placed on the protection of large mammals and greater emphasis being placed on the conservation of landscapes.
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