Ndumo Game Reserve

Ndumo Game Reserve is a small (11,000 hectares (27,000 acres))^[2] South African game reserve famous for its wetlands which shelter hippopotamus, crocodiles, fishes and an extraordinary diversity of birdlife. It is located in the far northeast district of KwaZulu-Natal known as Maputaland. It is situated on the border with Mozambique where the Pongola River joins the Great Usutu River. It is adjacent to the Tembe Elephant Park. Ndumo is relatively remote, being over 400 kilometres (250 mi) from Durban. The town of Mkuze is 110 kilometres (68 mi) away.

Ndumo Game Reserve
Location in KwaZulu-Natal
Location	KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Nearest city	Mkuze, Kwa-Zulu Natal
Coordinates	26°54′43″S 32°15′48″E
Area	102 km2 (39 sq mi)
Established	1924
Governing body	Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife
Ramsar Wetland
Designated	21 January 1997
Reference no.	887[1]

Ndumo hosts a diverse range of habitats including sand forest, dense riverine forest, floodplains, alluvial plains, reed beds, grassland, broad-leaved and acacia woodlands and extremely dense thornveld. Ndumo is popular for its birdlife and despite its small size, the reserve has recorded in excess of 430 bird species including residents and seasonal migrants. The park's abundance of pans, floodplains and rivers (Pongola & Usutu) provide ideal habitat for many aquatic species.

The Maputaland area in general is relatively rich in birdlife due to ecosystem diversity as well as its geographical location: the area forms the southernmost range for a great many eastern and north-eastern African bird species. The area receives a high annual rainfall.

A short list of sought-after bird species resident to Ndumo:

• Pel's fishing owl
• Narina trogon
• African broadbill
• Eastern nicator (formerly "yellow-spotted nicator" but this name is now given to another bird, the western nicator)
• African cuckoo-hawk

Large mammals found in Ndumo include nyala, hippopotamus, impala, giraffe and Cape buffalo. Big cats are absent from the park. Elephants are prolific at the neighbouring Tembe Elephant Park.

This park is rich in frogs and herpetofauna and is one of South Africa's 3 remaining sanctuaries for Nile crocodile, though illegal occupation of the Phongolo floodplain in the park is endangering this.

As with all parts of Maputaland, malaria is endemic and visitors are advised to take the proper precautions.

There is an Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife campsite and hutted camp.

This park is to be included into the: Usuthu-Tembe-Futi Transfrontier Conservation Area should that one day materialise.

Conservation and social history

In 1924, the area that is now the Ndumo Game Reserve was declared a protected area (a provincial game reserve) by the South African government. This was principally to protect the hippopotamus living in its pans and stretches of the Usuthu and Pongola rivers.

In the 1950s and 60s, the local inhabitants were systematically and forcibly evicted from their homesteads and fields inside the reserve boundaries, which were fenced in this period. The resident community had been growing, and with their tilled fields, burning practices, dogs and livestock were judged inimical to the reserve's declared conservation function. It was decided to evict families as and when conservation regulations were broken and convictions upheld, a process completed in 1966^[3].

Although the Ndumo communities legally contested their right to the land, with a land claim settled in their favour in 2000, they were denied the right to resettle the land, instead given financial restitution and (in theory) a say in management. One resident recalls their period of residence as follows:

There we were rich; we ate sweet potatoes, bananas, madumbe [root vegetable], cassava and pumpkins. We drank from the Usuthu River. Today that river is reserved for the hippos and crocodiles while our children die from drought. The wild fruits are left to fatten the monkeys, and the rhinos graze on the graves of our ancestors.^[4]

The unresolved dispute over control of this land (there are allegations of another, so far undiscovered alternative agreement) and ongoing issues with Community Based Natural Resource Management as a conservation model in the province (Meer 2010), along with unemployment and unfulfilled promises of development, has resulted in the anomalous situation that the eastern part of this declared provincial game reserve has been illegally fished, grazed and farmed since 2010. This is despite its status as a Ramsar wetland of international importance, declared in 1997.^[3]

armland is replacing the indigenous vegetation and wildlife, formerly important hippopotamus habitat and winter grazing grounds, and crocodiles no longer nest along the river which was their historical nesting area in the reserve (Carnie, 2021).

CENTENARY AND AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE

Ndumo Game Reserve's centenary in 2024 went largely unremarked aside from a couple of newspaper articles (including Pooley, 2024). However a special issue of African Journal of Wildlife Research was in development, celebrating the long legacy of scientific research in the Reserve and including papers on its management history, and future prospects. This was published in early 2025 (AJWR 2025).

Efforts have been underway since 2021 to get Ndumo Game Reserve listed as a threatened Ramsar site, and referred to the country's Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment (DFFE) as a priority for intervention. This proved complicated given the many agencies involved.

In 2025 Ramsar SA agreed the site was threatened, but this led to no further Ramsar action as the South African authorities said they had their own national initiative in place for assessing the status of protected areas and recommending management actions (something first claimed in 2021). The DFFE responded that they were waiting on a statement by the Department of Water and Sanitation on the ecological and social classification of river catchments including those flowing through Ndumo - which was published in June 2025 (Carnie, 2025).

As of August 2025, DFFE are awaiting a final report from the provincial conservation authority Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, before submitting the country's long overdue Ramsar update report on the status of Ndumo Game Reserve. What remains to be determined is what actions will be taken to remedy the situation and restore and protect this unique reserve and its precious African wetlands.