Monkeys chatter in alarm when a crowned eagle swoops over them. A dehorned black rhino gallops onto a ridge and stops, staring down at us before disappearing into the rose-gold twilight at Babanango Game Reserve, in northern KwaZulu-Natal. Babanango, in the heart of Zululand and the White Umfolozi River Valley, is unique. Three community trusts own 75% of the land of the reserve, which has been transformed in just six years from eroded grazing into a paradise for wildlife.
Babanango became a big-five reserve last August with the release of elephants, and was declared a provincial nature reserve in November. The 20,000ha reserve has high biodiversity and the river is an important water source; freshwater sources, like wild species, need protection and investment. When two lions killed two buffalo in one day, Chris Galliers of Conservation Outcomes wished they would choose less-expensive food. “We had just released 42 disease-free buffalo (costing R50,000 or more each) when we saw a whole lot of vultures circling above the kills,” said the conservation manager, who supports the reserve.
Babanango is committed to conservation and community development. Partnerships between the communal trusts - which get leasehold income as the title-deed owners following land restitution - private land owners, conservation groups and funders, along with years of consultation, have realised this vision. Conservation and reserve operations manager Ryan Andraos said: “This is conservation in the 21st century.”
In 2017 this land, about 250km north of Durban, was uninhabited — but the illegal ranching of about 3,000 cattle and cutting down of trees had degraded it, and hunting had wiped out game. “We had to engage the herders to relocate the cattle and give them assistance with boreholes and camps,” said Thokazani “TK” Hlophe, community liaison officer for the African Habitat Conservancy Foundation, the key funder of Babanango.
Driving from land set aside for communal cattle grazing onto the reserve, a diversity of riverine, grassland and thornland species explode. Birds, plains game, giraffe, blue wildebeest and the black rhino were among the species we spotted this week on our first game drive, which crossed the White Umfolozi and went up into rocky terrain where rare aloes blazed.
Hellmuth Weisser, co-founder of the African Habitat Conservancy Foundation — which has invested more than $50m (about R908m) since 2018 — marvels at how quickly the land recovered and how species are thriving. “When we started there was no water in one stream and, since the wattles were removed, a waterfall is flowing there,” he said. “Last week lion cubs were born here for the first time in 150 years and this brings me joy.”
Cheetah, lion, elephant and rhino are among 29 species released into the reserve, which has about 3,043 head of game, while smaller species such as serval and civet have gravitated towards this haven. Others, such as the brown hyena, are increasing in number and a honey badger and spotted hyena were recently seen on camera traps.
“We saw a leopard in that cave on Madlaleni Hill,” said safari guide Hendrik Fehsenfeld, pointing to a dark slot high on the granite dome, where there is a camera trap. A brown hyena was also seen up there and a klipspringer.
Animals are establishing new game trails in the reserve, which was hit by the June 3 tornado late afternoon, snapping off tree canopies and the tops of euphorbias, Fehsenfeld said.
“Buck eat the seeds from the damaged euphorbias,” he said, pointing to impala grazing on them. Kudus looking sleek strolled past while a tawny eagle with prey in its talons flew overhead.
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in South Africa funded the reserve management plan and process to become a provincial nature reserve, and its implementing partner, Conservation Outcomes, has delivered the management and technical expertise to support its development, said Angus Burns, a senior manager at WWF SA.
Under strong management, the reserve has become a refuge for endangered black rhinos and white rhinos. In 2022, four black rhino orphans were relocated to Babanango — all of them dehorned with tracking devices — under the Black Rhino Range Expansion Project (BRREP). Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife and the WWF initiated BRREP in 2003, joined later by Eastern Cape Parks and Tourism, and under this project the number of endangered black rhinos has steadily increased despite organised poaching.
“Once the black rhinos are translocated and settled in, I help with the team in the reserve with monitoring,” said BREPP population manager Ursina Rusch. One of her favourite times is counting the birth rates and sightings when the stats are sent to her, three times a year.
Roughly a 10th of the world’s 6,500 remaining black rhinos are found in KwaZulu-Natal, about 650 out of about 2,500 black rhinos in South Africa.
Anti-poaching rangers guarding the rhinos are among more than 200 people from local communities employed by Babanango. Near their new base painted in camo shades, they performed a military drill and a demo for us of catching a fleeing poacher with two of their K9 Malinois dogs.
A 26-year-old ranger talked about how poachers, and the rhinos they protect, pose a risk to them in the bush. “If we hear a gunshot, we know that they will shoot at us if we are coming to disturb them. It is challenging to track people who you know are armed with dangerous weapons.”
He has been chased by a rhino, he said, and had his morning ablutions in the bush interrupted by one. “I was in a thick bush when I heard a sound. I saw the rhino coming straight at me and I had to climb a tree, with my uniform half down. My colleague heard I had a problem and chased the rhino away.”
At the opening on a comfortable new ranger base, sponsored by the Roy McAlpine Foundation, their team leader said: “We can rest smoothly here and heal.” One 32-year-old dog handler said he chose to share his room, with a stack of dog food in the corner, with his dog.
The deputy chair of the KwaNgono Community Trust, Langelihle Yaka, said that the new building added value to their land. “We entered into this partnership to create opportunities and will work hand in hand with Babanango,” he said.
We needed to mark out the fence with sub communities. We would take pegs and go walking. The members would say, ‘move that peg, we need that grazing’, and we would move it
— Conservation Outcomes conservation manager, Chris Galliers
The Emcakwini Community Trust, which owns the most land, and Esibongweni Communal Property are the other two communal trusts in the rental agreement with Babanango.
African Habitat Conservancy project manager Thina Sithole said the benefits they offer go beyond jobs — like work for the largely female team removing invasive aliens to protect the water catchment — and services, such as 17 boreholes and Wi-Fi to schools.
Training is also a priority and their next initiative will be training guides from the community, she said. “They know the land, they grew up here and it makes sense to train them for future prospects. Instilling a sense of pride and ownership in safeguarding the land is so important. This is how we can run and scale up sustainable projects,” Sithole said.
Winning the community’s trust for the project took them much more than words. The partners had to prove their commitment, for example, in building the 75km fence around the reserve, which took about three years and cost millions. “We needed to mark out the fence with sub-communities. We would take pegs and go walking. The members would say, ‘move that peg, we need that grazing’, and we would move it. We walked a lot of the fence with them,” said Galliers.
“The community could only meet on Sunday, so early in the morning we would leave home and drive up for meetings. We would sit under trees, talk and listen.” Foundation staff like Hlophe played a significant role in the negotiations to get the communities on board.
WWF programme manager for grasslands Thembanani Nsibande said: “We have to listen to what people on the ground want ... it is difficult to engage a community if they think they are being chased away.”
Babanango sits on land with immense historical and cultural value — this was the heartland of King Shaka in the 1800s — and archeological and geological value, said Kevin McCann of Conservation Outcomes. The battlegrounds of Isandlwana and Rorke’s Drift are nearby for tours.
“Babanango is doing a full heritage assessment and the (specialist) found more than 500 sites to visit here while doing research, but he is adding to the numerous sites every time. There are layers from the stone and iron age and tools, from Nguni history, San paintings and pottery,” he said.
Babanango, which falls within the Umfolozi biodiversity economy node, under the department of environmental affairs forestry and fisheries, is an example of the wildlife economy in action.The reserve is the largest employer in the area, providing jobs as envisaged by South Africa’s new draft national biodiversity economy strategy.
“The goal is for sustainable environmental protection and conservation,” said philanthropist Anne McAlpine at the opening of the rangers’ quarters this week. “Babanango represents the finest partnerships and collaborations of communities, private sector and NGOs. If we get something collectively sustainable, we have got a winning formula.”
The new provincial park contributes to the expansion of South Africa’s protected areas — in line with the global goal of 30 x 30, of protecting 30% of the world’s land, oceans and freshwater by 2030. But it took years of consultations and millions of rand to get to this point and will need ongoing support from eco-tourism and other sources.
Andraos is confident they have got it right, saying: “Babanango is a wonderful case study of how to put together the complex pieces of the biodiversity economy and make it work.”
• Claire Keeton was a guest of Babanango Game Reserve and WWF SA.
