Gabel Elba Bio-cultural Wealthy
GEPA has national and international importance. The PA has the potential to be a world class protected area attracting high quality ecotourism generating vital revenue for the country, the region and local communities.
Elba is Egypt’s largest and important Protected Area, encompassing a unique and extremely rich part of the country. Early European explorers of the region (e.g. Lenant de Bellefonds, Floyer, Schweinfurth, Bent, Ball and Anderson) have noted the uniqueness of the Elba region and its biodiversity richness. Various scientific investigations over the course of the past century further confirmed the exceptional value of this region.
The GEPA is located in the southeast corner of the Eastern Desert and encompasses a total area of some 35,600 km². It is located between the longitudes 22°00'N - 23°50'N, and the latitudes 35°00'E - 37°00'E. The boundaries extend more than 50 km north of Shalatein south to the boarder with Sudan, east covering the coral reefs and islands of the Red Sea west into the Eastern Desert.
Gebel Elba area is the most important component of the Protected Area. It is important to encompass the entire ecological gradient from the mountain highlands to the coastal plain, and even the coral reef (i.e. not confining attention to the highlands alone), to capture, as much as possible, the entire range of biodiversity and ecological interaction in the region.
