In Xitsonga, the name ‘Timbavati’ means “the place where something sacred came down to Earth from the Heavens”, and refers to the rare white lions of Timbavati.

The Timbavati Private Nature Reserve, an area of over 53 000 hectares (131 000 acres) of unspoilt natural wilderness.

In the early 1950’s a group of like-minded landowners realized that inappropriate land use could lead to habitat degradation and loss of wildlife for future generations. Working together, they formed the Timbavati Association in 1956, with the aim of preserving the natural integrity of the area.

Since its humble origins in the 1950s, the reserve is now a highly professionally managed organisation, that protects sustainable populations of many endangered species such as black and white rhinoceros, pangolins, saddlebilled storks, southern ground hornbills and many others.

The Timbavati is home to a number of Safari lodges that cater to local and international tourists. They help sustain a thriving tourism economy for the region and promote employment within the reserve and in the neighbouring communities.

The reserve also finances an outreach body known as the Timbavati Foundation. The Foundation oversees a series of programmes that help neighbouring communities in areas such as boreholes, sustainable shaded vegetable farming as well as environmental awareness programmes for school children.

Human incursion into this part of the Lowveld has always been temporary and brief, from the stone age down to the early 20th century. Large tracts of land in the northern part of the Lowveld were never permanently settled by people. The lands now comprising the Timbavati were barely touched and are still only sparsely inhabited. This part of South Africa’s bushveld region may therefore be regarded as truly pristine and unspoiled; it is genuine wilderness, different from the “restored” and “restocked” lands commonly found elsewhere.