The province of KwaZulu-Natal has a range of landscapes from the sub-alpine heights of the Ukhahlamba Drakensberg Park through the grasslands and mist belt forests of the Natal midlands, to the endless golden beaches that stretch from Umtamvuna in the south to Kosi Bay in the north and on to the subtropical thorn savannahs of Zululand and Maputaland where the wild animals  of african legand roam free in the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park.

In this diverse province, Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife manages more than 80 protected wildlife areas to achieve two main objectives. The first of these is to preserve and maintain representitive samples of all the ecosystems occuring naturally in the province.  The second objective is to allow people access to and sustainable benefits from these areas. 

These objectives are achieved through a variety of programmes that make up the three pillars that support the concept of balanced conservation. The first of these is community, which through an extensive outreach programme addresses peoples interaction with protected wildlife areas.

Biodiversity conservation is the prime purpose of the organisation and deals with research and management of the protected wildlife areas.

Tourism deals with peoples' access and focuses on the economics of protected wildlife areas and sustainable access to their natural resources.

A measure of the success of the Service's biodiversity conservation programmes is the percentage of KwaZulu-Natal species found in its protected wildlife areas, which collectively, total only 8,63% of the province.

THE PROTECTION of BIODIVERSITY IN KWAZULU-NATAL