South Africa's oldest formally protected reserve, set around the Pongolapoort Dam at the foot of the Lebombo Mountains
Phongolo Nature Reserve
Phongolo Nature Reserve is a protected area in northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, administered by Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife. Stretching from the shores of the Pongolapoort Dam, also known as Lake Jozini, up to the crest of the Lebombo Mountains along the Eswatini border, the reserve occupies the Lebombo range and the surrounding Zululand Lowveld.
The reserve covers around 10,485 hectares and was first proclaimed in 1894 by President Paul Kruger of the South African Republic, making it the oldest formally protected nature reserve in South Africa and one of the oldest on the African continent. After disruptions during the Second Boer War, an aggressive game-culling campaign aimed at tsetse fly eradication, and the eventual construction of the Pongolapoort Dam, a portion of the original reserve was re-proclaimed in 1979 as the present-day protected area.
Phongolo is notable for the way it combines montane escarpment, lowveld bushveld, and a large freshwater dam within a single reserve footprint. It supports notable populations of elephant, white rhinoceros, and reintroduced black rhinoceros, alongside abundant hippopotamus and Nile crocodile in the dam, and is formally recognised as an Important Bird Area with more than 300 recorded bird species.
