South Africa’s Babanango reserve is a community-led rewilding effort | Canada Voices

Peering through my binoculars, I spot them. One. Two. Three. Four. Curious at the sound of the safari vehicle’s engine, the lion cubs poke their heads out from behind the boulder where their mother stashed them for safe-keeping.

As someone who lives in South Africa for much of the year, I’ve seen my share of big cats. But these feel special. They’re among the first lions born in this part of KwaZulu-Natal province in at least 150 years. Like many of the region’s native animals, they disappeared after the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879 when hunting and habitat loss drove them to local extinction.

Their return is the result of one of Africa’s most ambitious conservation projects: Babanango Game Reserve. Spanning more than 21,000 hectares in northern Zululand, Babanango is more than a new safari destination. It’s a community-led rewilding effort on the same land that was stolen from the Zulu by British colonists more than a century ago.

It wasn’t until South Africa’s postapartheid reconciliation process during the mid-1990s that the area was handed back to its traditional owners, albeit devastated by decades of unchecked farming and hunting. Faced with declining returns from cattle farming, the Zulu Emcakwini Community Trust envisioned a future built around conservation and sustainable tourism.

Unlike many African reserves that were established through government action or private sale, Babanango began thanks to an idea from the people who have lived here for generations. The long-term goal: to restore wildlife while generating jobs and long-term economic opportunities.

“No one imposed and said this land should be a reserve,” says Thina Nyathi, manager of the Babanango Foundation, which oversees community development. “The decision resonates with the history and lifestyle of the Zulu people, who have always co-existed with nature.”

In 2018, Emcakwini joined forces with KwaZulu-Natal’s provincial government, philanthropists and conservation partners to combine thousands of hectares of community-owned land into a single protected landscape. Today, roughly three-quarters of the reserve is leased from these communities, which receive rental income, co-own the wildlife and will share in future tourism profits. Two neighbouring community trusts – Esibongweni and Kwa Ngono – joined the project in 2019 and 2020.

A safari here feels unlike one in South Africa’s more established parks. Game drives climb through dramatic valleys where the elevation ranges from riverine forests to threatened mist-belt grasslands atop high-altitude hills, creating an unusual range of habitats and one of the richest concentrations of biodiversity in KwaZulu-Natal. Wildlife remains the obvious draw – elephants, leopards, buffalo and more than 4,000 reintroduced animals now roam the reserve – but guides are just as likely to stop to explain an erosion-control project or boma (corral) where new animals are kept before being released. Guests are sometimes invited to lend a hand.

One afternoon I join a group of wildlife monitors, responsible for protecting high-profile residents such as black and white rhino. Equipped with telemetry devices, we track down the collared lioness whose cubs I saw earlier. She has successfully brought down a kudu and collected her young for a feast. The next day, I watched as nearly three dozen ostriches, brought in from another reserve, were released from a truck into the park. At first they seem unsure of their new home, huddling together, before dashing across the savannah in a flurry of feathers.

“The moment you put up a fence, a lot of people think that’s done and dusted,” says Stuart Dunlop, an ecologist at Babanango. “In reality, that’s when it begins.”

Crews from the nearby communities work year-round stabilizing eroded hillsides, clearing invasive plants and restoring damaged habitats. Babanango is now Zululand’s second-largest employer, with roughly 75 per cent of its team hired locally. For many employees, it is their first formal job.

The work is far from finished. Reserve managers continue negotiating with neighbouring Zulu landowners to incorporate new parcels of land, gradually expanding the protected landscape and bringing more communities into the project.

“Without involving communities, there’s no future for conservation in Africa,” says head of conservation Ryan Andraos.

Babanango is proof of that. Less than a decade ago, these hills bore the scars of overgrazing, erosion and poaching. Today, they stand as proof that conservation does more than bring back species. It can reconnect people with the value of wildlife, strengthen communities and redefine what a safari can accomplish.

“Babanango isn’t just about the animals,” says Nyathi. “It’s not just about the lodges. It’s about how important it is for us to preserve nature and leave it for our great grandchildren the way that we found it. That’s an idea I think should be replicated across Africa and across the world.”

If you go

The reserve is approximately a three-hour drive from Durban’s King Shaka International Airport; from Johannesburg’s O.R. Tambo International Airport it is about a six-hour drive. Guests may self-drive to Babanango or arrange a transfer through the reservations team. It’s also possible to arrive via helicopter.

Babanango features four distinct lodges and camps, ranging from the ultra-luxurious Madwaleni River Lodge (from $1,236 for each person a night, based on double occupancy, includes meals, drinks and guided game drives) to the self-catering Matatane Camp (from $124 for each person a night, double occupancy, game drives are an extra cost).

The writer was a guest of Babanango Game Reserve, which did not review or approve this article. Stories are based on merit; The Globe does not guarantee coverage.