Maputo National Park (MNP) is located on the south-eastern coast of Maputo Province in the Matutuíne District of southern Mozambique. The MNP was established on 31 December 2021, consolidating the existing Ponta do Ouro Partial Marine Reserve and the Maputo Special Reserve. The MNP is being put forward for inclusion on the Tentative List as an extension to the iSimangaliso Wetland Park in South Africa, which was declared a World Heritage site in 1999. This submission replaces the prior one made by the Mozambique government in August 2008 to include the Ponta do Ouro Partial Marine Reserve.

The MNP extends from Ponta do Ouro in the south, at the border with the iSimangaliso Wetland Park (a World Heritage Site) in South Africa, around the northern tip of Inhaca Island to the Maputo River mouth in Maputo Bay. The park extends from the high-water mark to three nautical miles into the Indian Ocean and one nautical mile into the interior of Maputo Bay, including the surrounding waters of Inhaca and Portuguese Islands (DNAC, 2011). The terrestrial component of park (formerly the Maputo Special Reserve) is bordered by Maputo Bay in the north, the Indian Ocean in the east, the Maputo River, the Fúti River and a line two km east of the Salamanga – Ponta do Ouro road in the west, and the southern tips of Lake Xingute and Lake Piti (DNAC, 2009).

The site falls within the Maputaland Coastal Plain, with its coastal cordon of high, forested parabolic dunes and extensive sandy beaches. A series of permanent and semi-permanent coastal lakes, the largest being Lake Piti, lie behind the dunes. The coastal cordon’s major ecosystems include rocky shores, extensive intertidal areas of seagrass, mangrove forests and coral reefs. Extensive coastal grasslands contain forests, thickets and wetlands.  The property falls within the Maputaland Centre of Plant Endemism (Van Wyk, 1996; Van Wyk & Smith, 2001; Matimele, 2016), which is globally recognised for the rich biodiversity of its terrestrial, coastal and marine ecosystems and its high levels of endemism. With its distinctive flora and fauna and exceptional species richness. The MNP is considered a biodiversity hotspot of regional and global importance and as such, a global priority for conservation.

Measuring just under 1 500 km², Maputo Special Reserve forms a central part of the Usuthu-Tembe-Futi TFCA that links the reserve up with Tembe Elephant Park in South Africa via the Futi Corridor.