THE STORY

Sabie Game Reserve (SGR) resides in the heart of the lowveld in South Africa. SGR is situated in pristine bush and at the epicentre of a recognized biodiversity hotspot within the world famous Greater Kruger Park area, which adjoins vast conservation landscapes in neighbouring Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

Seven farms nestled together close to the confluence of the Sabie and Sand rivers in a proclaimed Nature Reserve, protected in some form for over 100 years, the Sabie Game Reserve is a vital and resilient area with importance beyond threatened and listed animals. It is an important buffer for the Kruger National Park wilderness in the south and east, has an ecologically contiguous boundary with Mala Mala to the east, is an important stepping stone for potential community owned and land reform properties to the west, and protects one of South Africa’s most important rivers, the Sabie river.

Indeed, the area has been identified as a provincial “hotspot of diversity for all species of conservation concern” by the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency (MTPA).

The rich heritage of the area is preserved in the name of the “Sabie Game Reserve”, which originated in 1898, and testament to the forward-thinking conservators of the day, leading in time to the creation of Kruger National Park and South Africa’s entire national parks system.

Today the conservation vision is even more expansive, and focused on the new horizon of trans-border ecotourism as a means of fostering regional socio-economic development. It is therefore fitting that the Sabie Game Reserve once again joins formally with the Kruger National Park as a steward of the unfenced, “Open System”, marking a new phase in cooperative management of landscape-level ecological issues, to unlock sustainable benefits responsibly, improve safety and security, on the basis of principles of integrity, reciprocity, transparency and cooperation.

Sabie Game Reserve understands that it is a custodian of this important landscape. Eco-tourism is the major economic activity and we believe that responsible eco-tourism, which offers world class safari experiences and which provides sustainable benefits to neighbouring communities and businesses, is pivotal in achieving a conservation success story. Thus our slogan, linking Conservation, Community and Tourism, “ku tirhisana eka vanhu na swiharhi” – ‘working together for people and wildlife’.