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The Garden Route National Park says of the 249 national estuaries forming part of a study, the Knysna estuary was ranked above the St Lucia World Heritage Site in terms of biodiversity significance.
The Park says in a statement this was determined by the number of fish species, birds and botanical data from the study, which was conducted by Jane Turpie and Barry Clarke.
The Knysna estuary is home to 43 percent of South Africa's plant and animal life, and supports rare fish species such as the grunter, white steenbras, dusky cob and cape stumpnose.
The estuary alone contributes some 21, 6 percent of the total economic value of all the national estuaries.
