Kruger National Park

Its origins go back to 1898, when President Paul Kruger of the then South African Republic (Transvaal) proclaimed the Sabi Game Reserve to halt the steep decline in wildlife caused by commercial and colonial-era sport hunting. James Stevenson-Hamilton, the reserve's first warden from 1902, spent the following decades evicting the local tribal populations from the land — the Makuleke community among them, finally displaced in the 1960s — to consolidate a space given over to wildlife alone. The modern national park, named after Kruger, was formally created in 1926. It is now one of the largest rhino sanctuaries in the world, though it has suffered an especially severe poaching crisis over the past decade driven by Asian demand for rhino horn, which has led to intensive surveillance programmes using military technology and specialist dog units.