About Us

The Wilderness Foundation is one of few South African Conservation NGOs currently involved with active, sustainable social intervention programmes.

Founded in 1972 by conservation leader Dr Ian Player and the late Zulu trail guide Magqubu Ntombela, the Wilderness Foundation (WF) is a South African non-profit organization headquartered in Port Elizabeth, in the Eastern Cape.
Recognising that the protection and sustainability of South Africa’s unique wilderness areas and natural heritage is dependent on socio-political and economic conditions within a society, the WF integrates conservation programmes with social and educational programmes.
The Wilderness Foundation believes in sustainable social intervention projects. Due to the HIV/AIDS pandemic throughout the continent of Africa, huge numbers of youth are left orphaned and vulnerable, stuck in a cycle of poverty, with little hope of a brighter future.
There is a dire need for a holistic social intervention programme which can offer vulnerable youth a chance at becoming successful contributors to society through personal growth and future employment. Through the Wilderness Foundation’s social intervention projects, young people are empowered to become financially independent entrepreneurs and breadwinners for their families.
The WF believes in the power of the wilderness to dissolve ethnic and economic inequalities and forge one path toward social and environmental sustainability.
Since 2000, the WF has been headed by executive director Andrew Muir, who in 2008 won the Rolex Award for Social Enterprise for establishing the Umzi Wethu social intervention project. Umzi Wethu targets vulnerable youth, giving them an opportunity to become breadwinners for their families through skills development and job creation.

Currently, the Wilderness Foundation focuses on four key programme areas:

1. Innovative conservation and development
2. Social intervention and job creation
3. Advocacy and awareness
4. Experiential education through wilderness trails

Roots of the WF

The Foundation was born within two individuals who experienced the power of Africa's wild places firsthand. The vision for the Wilderness Foundation began in the minds and hearts of Dr Ian Player (international conservationist) and the late Magqubu Ntombela (a Zulu tribal chief and renowned conservationist), in the Mfolosi Game Reserve in 1959.

Structure of the WF

Operating as a National South African NGO, (a registered Not-for-Profit Organisation- NPO:009-437 and Public Benefit Organisation-PBO: 18/11/13/632 ), its head office is based in Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape. The Foundation, along with its national and international counterparts - The Wilderness Leadership School (SA); The Wild Foundation (USA) and The Wilderness Foundation UK-has attained significant international recognition and awareness through active membership and participation in Global Conservation and Wilderness Networks. Moulded by many years of experience and commitment in the field of social and environmental entrepreneurship, we remain dedicated to our founding mandate, which is to protect and sustain our African Wilderness and its communities through innovative conservation and education programmes. Historically disadvantaged youth, as well as political and community decision-makers, have experienced the irreplaceable qualities of wilderness directly, which has often led to the rediscovery of identity, perspective and a stimulation of leadership skills and conservation ethos.