Caption: SANParks CEO, Hapiloe Sello, addressing guests at the Africa’s Travel Indaba in Durban
By Lwazi Raul-Shongwe
SANParks(South African National Parks) is using Africa’s Travel Indaba 2026 to reflect on 100 years of conservation leadership while setting the course for a more inclusive and sustainable future for national parks.
SANParks is participating under the theme “Our Heritage, Our Future”, coinciding with the centenary of Kruger National Park, one of Africa’s most iconic conservation landscapes.
The milestone marks 100 years since KNP’s formal proclamation as a national park, and more than a century of conservation practice tracing back to the Sabi Game Reserve in 1898.
Speaking at the Indaba, SANParks CEO(Chief Executive Officer), Hapiloe Sello, said Kruger National Park’s centenary is both a moment of commemoration and reflection.
“It honours extraordinary conservation achievements, while also acknowledging lessons learned from the painful past of land dispossession and displacements. And now as we look ahead, our focus is firmly on inclusive conservation models that ensure national parks deliver lasting value for both nature and people,” said Sello.
According to Sello, the Africa’s Travel Indaba provides a powerful continental and global platform to position national parks, not only as tourism destinations, but as offerings that contribute meaningfully to nature, community development, cultural heritage, and economic inclusion.
