Phinda Private Game Reserve

Phinda Private Game Reserve, formerly known as Phinda Resource Reserve, is a 170 km2 private game reserve situated in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, between the Mkuze Game Reserve and the Greater St. Lucia Wetland Park. Designated in 1990, Phinda is derived from a Zulu phrase "Phinda Izilwane" meaning 'return of wildlife', or more accurately 'do again'.

Phinda has seven distinct ecosystems ranging from palm savannah and mountain bush to rare sand forest and dense thornveld. In 1992 the reserve joined with two neighboring land owners to create the Mun-Ya-Wana Game Reserve. Through various land expansion projects, acquisitions, and agreements with local communities, the conservancy has grown to 286 km2.

The original idea for Phinda was developed by Kevin Leo-Smith in 1986, when his company Agri-Plan Estates was offered the core Phinda South farm then known as Zulu Nyala, for sale. A deeds and map search showed that Zulu Nyala strategically lay between the Mkuze and Lake St. Lucia Game Reserves. Kevin Leo-Smith was then joined by Trevor Coppen, a lawyer and entrepreneur from Durban and later by Andrew Montgomery, a town planner and the concept of acquiring farm land and reintroducing big game was further developed. In 1989, after several failed attempts to secure the capital required, Alan Bernstein joined the group and worked on the business plan and capital raising strategy. Alan Bernstein and Jane Edge asked Dave Varty of Londolozi to join the founding group to add his safari tourism expertise to the founders.

After several false starts the required capital was raised through the Master Bond Group and the core farms, now collectively known as Phinda North, were acquired and the Phinda Resource Reserve was born in early 1990. Master Bond later ran into liquidity problems before the first lodge, then known as Phinda Nyala 9now Mountain Lodge), was fully complete. Alan Bernstein was already busy with refinancing the business through an investment banking team from Hambros Bank in London led by Jonathan Klein. With Hambros enough capital was raised to rescue Phinda from what was a near disaster to found the Conservation Corporation Africa (CC Africa). The core investors included the Getty Family and various Anglo American entities and private individuals. Phinda was a subsidiary of CC Africa.

CC Africa then rapidly expanded adding Ngala Lodge, the first private lodge in the Kruger National Park, as well as building Phinda Forest Lodge and adding a management contract with Londolozi before expanding into East Africa, Zimbabwe and Botswana. By the late 1990s all the original founding group were no longer with the holding company and the name was changed from The Conservation Corporation Africa to &Beyond.

Phinda pioneered the use of release bomas for predator reintroductions and also how to handle adult elephant that escaped with only locally available machinery and equipment that changed the way elephant were handled in capture operations. However, Phinda's legacy is proving that restocking agricultural land with wildlife managed on a sustainable basis was way more economically viable than agriculture. The land value at acquisition in early 1990 averaged R1,250/ha and today similar land in the Munyawana Game Reserve of which Phinda is a core part sells for prices in excess of R50,000/ha (2023). This represents a return well in excess of 20% per annum for over 30 years.

As of May 2020, the South African company WildEarth have broadcast drives from Phinda in collaboration with &Beyond.

Fauna
Wildlife inhabiting this reserve include elephant, giraffe, zebra, lion, African wild dog, blue wildebeest, Cape buffalo, hippopotamus, southern white rhinoceros, south-central black rhinoceros, suni, spotted hyena, cheetah and leopard.

Lodges

 * Forest Lodge – sixteen stilted glass chalets . These chalets are hand built by local Zulu people to minimize impact on the rare Sand Forest. They seem to float between the forest floor and the towering torchwood trees.
 * Mountain Lodge – twenty chalets and conference facilities situated at the top of a lavish bushveld world, with panoramas of the Lebombo Mountains and the Lake St. Lucia coastal plains.
 * Vlei Lodge – six stilted suites of thatch, teak and glass overlook Phinda's unique wetland system at the edge of the forest.
 * Rock Lodge – six chalets built into the rock face overlooking the Leopard Rock.
 * Zuka Lodge – situated in the western region of Phinda are four thatched Zululand bush cottages. The cottages are set 15 metres apart and feature verandas overlooking a busy waterhole.
 * Homestead – an exclusive use 4 bedroom villa.