Shamwari Game Reserve
Privately Owned Wilderness Areas
Designation of wilderness areas is usually associated with public land, but there is great scope for designations on lands under private control (individual, corporate, church, tribal, and more). This is especially true in a country like South Africa where there is more land under conservation management in the private sector (private game reserves, game ranches, etc) than in the public sector.
In practical conservation terms, wilderness is the highest form of conservation category an area can achieve, and is defined by the World Conservation Union as a “large area of unmodified or slightly modified land and / or sea which retains its natural character and influence and which is protected and managed so as to preserve its natural condition”. In personal, social and cultural terms, wilderness was our home – the crucible in which humans evolved over millions of years – and is yet the repository of irreplaceable biological, economic and spiritual values. Shamwari Game Reserve, located in the South Africa’s Eastern Cape, set aside 16 % of their land, over 3,000 hectares (7,500 acres) as a wilderness area, subject to a well-defined wilderness management plan, under servitude (a type of easement) with the Wilderness Foundation.
The Shamwari Game Reserve
image credit: Graham Racher
In November 2001, Shamwari Game Reserve set aside 16 % of their land, over 3,000 hectares (7,500 acres) as a wilderness area and began offering a 4 day wilderness trail program. Four-day wilderness trails are run with two nights spent in the bush, and the first and last nights in the base camp. Shamwari Game Reserve operates their four day wilderness trails with a concern for minimum impact. The only lasting impression left by a wilderness trail is the experience itself. And it is likely to be indelible. The late Sir Laurens van der Post, one of WILD’s founding directors, said it very well; “(Wilderness) presents us with a blue print, as it were, of what creation was about in the beginning, when all the plants and trees and animals were magnetic, fresh from the hands of the Creator.”
Shamwari Game Reserve is part of the Mantis Collection, and has many occasions during the last decade been recognized as the top eco-tourism destination in South Africa.
Click here for more information on the four-day wilderness trails >>>
In the photo on the right, Dr. Ian Player, Kieth Loon (Shamwari’s lawyer), Andrew Ewing, Adrian Gardiner sign the servitude documentation which legally states that Shamwari Game Reserve now has a privately owned Wilderness area – the first in Africa.