Notes Towards a Management History of Ndumo Game Reserve

This paper provides a thematic summary of local historical anthropogenic impacts and interventions which have impacted on Ndumo Game Reserve. It also examines some key biophysical episodes and events. Natural scientists using long-term data collected in the reserve would do well to be aware of both kinds of impacts when drawing conclusions about its ecology and biota. The paper synthesises available evidence from the official records contained in the archive of the Natal Parks Board (NPB), in the period of its control of the reserve (1947–1988). These have been little consulted by researchers and conservation managers to date. The paper is organized into sections relating to general management; reserve residents and their livestock, and tourists; weather and water; fauna, including game counts and culling; flora, including veld burning, alien invasive plants and veld assessments. A brief section notes key developments post-NPB control: rhino poaching, illegal occupation and rerouting of the Usuthu River. The paper does not review the wider literature touching on the topics covered. It is not an analysis or critique of management. It shares the depth of archival material available, and reminds researchers to think holistically about the range of drivers of ecological change impacting on their research subjects and landscapes in the socioecological context of managed protected areas.