South Africa
Conservation through shared prosperity.
23,000 hectares. No fence between it and Kruger National Park. A landscape where the future of conservation depends on the communities living along its edges.
Abundant Village is a US-registered nonprofit working alongside communities in Botswana, South Africa, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. We fund and co-design conservation that the people living closest to the land actually lead. This page is about Manyeleti Nature Reserve, on the western edge of Greater Kruger, and the communities along its boundary.
501(c)(3) nonprofit · Tax ID 93-1914783
The Greater Kruger ecosystem covers more than two million hectares and anchors the Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area. Nearly 150 mammal species live here, including all of the Big Five and globally significant populations of rhino, elephant and large carnivores.
There are no fences between its reserves. An elephant can walk out of Manyeleti and into Kruger without crossing a barrier. That openness is what makes the ecosystem work, and it is why what happens on its edges matters so much.
Manyeleti was known for decades as the poor cousin of Kruger. It was chronically under-resourced, despite wildlife densities that rival its better-funded neighbour and a position beside one of the world’s most significant rhino populations.
The communities around it carry the legacy of apartheid-era forced removals. In many cases they are the land’s original custodians, moved off it by law. More than 180 settlements line the park’s eastern boundary, and youth unemployment in them regularly exceeds 60 percent.
No amount of fencing or enforcement will protect a park whose neighbours have been given no reason to want it there.
We work from the outside in, treating the communities around the reserve as its most effective protectors rather than as a threat to be managed. If this works at Manyeleti, in one of the most scrutinised conservation ecosystems on earth, it can work anywhere.
The work runs across three connected tracks.
Track 1
We are working to strengthen community-led conservation along the Manyeleti boundary, building on existing fence monitoring and creating stronger links between the reserve and neighbouring communities.
The work is backed by community rangers and conservation education in local schools.
Track 2
We strengthen the reserve's ability to respond: fence repair, vehicles, equipment, and ranger training delivered alongside the warden's team.
Track 3
Boreholes and clean water, school and education support, healthcare access, and women's leadership programmes. This work has run in Thorndale since 2024 and is now folded into one integrated programme with the reserve.
Delivered in support of Manyeleti Nature Reserve, with the Tintswalo, Thorndale and Mnisi community structures.
Community, wildlife and ecosystem from the Greater Kruger and Manyeleti programme.
Greater Kruger holds globally significant populations of large carnivores.
A walking labyrinth built at one of the schools taking part in the programme.
Food growing in one of the communities bordering the reserve.
Conservation education runs in schools along the park's eastern boundary.
A mural at a school supported through the Thorndale programme.
Classroom support has run in Thorndale since 2024.
Your gift supports community-led conservation, livelihoods and locally designed solutions around Greater Kruger.
Donate NowAbundant Village is a US-registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Tax ID 93-1914783. Donations are tax-deductible as allowed by law.
