# Nyerere National Park > Tanzania's largest national park, carved out of the Selous in 2019. Canonical: https://seeyoutanzania.com/parks/nyerere Edited by: Kabeer Dalvi (https://seeyoutanzania.com/about) ## At a glance - **Managed by:** TANAPA - **Area:** 30,893 km² - **Established:** 2019 - **Region:** Pwani, Lindi, Morogoro and Ruvuma regions - **Best time:** June–October - **UNESCO:** Within the Selous Game Reserve World Heritage Site, inscribed 1982 ## The park At **30,893 square kilometres**, Nyerere is the largest national park in Tanzania and among the largest in Africa — bigger than Belgium. It was gazetted in **2019** from the northern section of the Selous Game Reserve, a protected area that has existed in some form since the German colonial period and was inscribed by UNESCO in 1982. Its defining feature is water. The **Rufiji River** runs through it, spreading into a system of lakes, channels and sandbanks that supports hippo and crocodile in extraordinary numbers and makes **boat safaris** possible — a different way of seeing game, and uncommon elsewhere in the country. Walking safaris with an armed ranger are also permitted here. The country is miombo woodland and open floodplain rather than short grass, and the game viewing is less concentrated than the Serengeti's but far less crowded. Nyerere holds significant populations of African wild dog, one of the continent's most endangered large carnivores. ## Wildlife - African wild dog - Elephant - Lion - Hippo - Crocodile - Buffalo - Sable antelope ## What to do ### Boat safari on the Rufiji Hippo, crocodile and waterbirds at eye level. ### Walking with an armed ranger Permitted here, and a completely different pace of looking. ### African wild dog One of the most important remaining populations on the continent. ### Fly-camping Overnight under canvas away from the lodges, arranged with the camps. ## Getting there Usually flown from Dar es Salaam — under an hour to the airstrips. By road it is roughly 250 km via Kibiti, about six hours to the Mtemere or Matambwe gates. ## The Rufiji, and the lakes it leaves behind TANAPA's own slogan for the park is *the land of the mighty Rufiji*, and it is the right place to start. The **Rufiji** is Tanzania's largest river. It crosses the north of the park slow and wide, and on the flat coastal plain — most of the northern sector lies **below 100 metres** — it wanders, splits and leaves water behind: **oxbow lakes**, side channels, swamps and sandbanks that shift from one rainy season to the next. That water is what makes Nyerere different from the parks of the north. Instead of short grass to the horizon you get a patchwork of lake, palm, floodplain and woodland, and the game comes down to the water rather than spreading across the plains. The **lakes beside the river** — ringed with drowned trees and palms — are where most visitors spend their time. It also means you can see the park from a boat. **Boat safaris** on the Rufiji and the lakes are an official TANAPA activity, and they put you at eye level with things a vehicle only looks down on: **hippo** in large pods, **Nile crocodile** on the sandbanks, elephant and buffalo drinking at the edge, and a long list of waterbirds. TANAPA notes that in the dry season the crocodiles, which live mainly on catfish, add to their diet the animals that come down to drink. Away from the river the park rises into **miombo woodland** and low hills, up to about 400 metres. Almost all of the tourism happens north of the Rufiji, where the lodges and camps have always been; the south of the park is enormous and very seldom visited. ## Wild dog, sable, and what is missing The animal people come for is the **African wild dog**. It is one of the most endangered large carnivores on the continent, gone from most of its old range, and the Selous has long held one of the largest surviving populations. TANAPA goes further and calls the park **the last true stronghold** for the species in Africa. We cannot verify that exact claim, but it is certainly among the best places in the world to see wild dog. TANAPA's brochure adds that they are most often found along the escarpment. The other speciality is antelope that the northern circuit does not have. TANAPA lists **sable**, **roan**, **Lichtenstein's hartebeest**, **greater kudu** and the **brindled (Nyasaland) gnu**, a wildebeest of the south with a white chevron across its nose. Alongside them are the familiar species: elephant, buffalo, giraffe, zebra, impala, waterbuck, lion, leopard and spotted hyena. More than **440 bird species** have been recorded. The ones birders travel for live along the wooded riverbanks — **Pel's fishing owl** and the white-backed night heron among them — and the sandbanks, channels and oxbow lakes carry waterbirds in large numbers. **What is missing is rhino.** TANAPA's website says the park holds "most of the Big Five except rhinos", although its printed brochure still lists them. The history explains the contradiction: the Selous held around **2,000 black rhino** when it became a World Heritage Site in 1982, only **45 to 60** by 2010, and the latest aerial census did not count them at all. Do not come expecting to see one. Note: The rhino figures are from IUCN's 2025 World Heritage Outlook for the Selous. TANAPA's website and brochure disagree on whether rhino are present; we follow the website and the census record. ## From hunting reserve to national park The protected area is older than the country. The German governor **Hermann von Wissmann** first declared it in **1896**, and it became a hunting reserve in **1905**. Under British rule it was consolidated in **1922** and named after **Frederick Courteney Selous**, the big-game hunter turned naturalist. Selous is also buried here. A captain in the 25th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers, he was shot by a German sniper on **4 January 1917**, during the East African campaign of the First World War, at the age of 65. He lies under a tamarind tree near where he fell, in the **Beho Beho** area of the north, beneath a plain plaque: *Captain F.C. Selous D.S.O., 25th Royal Fusiliers, killed in action 4.1.17.* UNESCO inscribed the **Selous Game Reserve** as a World Heritage Site in **1982**, when it covered roughly 50,000 km². For most of its history it was split between photographic tourism in the north, along the Rufiji, and trophy-hunting blocks across the rest. In **2019** the government divided it. The photographic north and a long stretch of country to the south became **Nyerere National Park**, **30,893 km²**, named after Tanzania's first president, **Julius Nyerere**. Hunting blocks do not apply inside the national park. The remainder, roughly 20,000 km² in the east, stays **Selous Game Reserve**. The World Heritage listing still carries the old name. ## The elephants, and the dam Two things put the Selous on UNESCO's **List of World Heritage in Danger**, and it is still there. The first was **poaching**. In 1976 the reserve held about **109,000 elephants**, then the largest population in the world. By 2013 it was about **13,000** — a fall of 66% in the four years from 2009 alone. It was listed as in danger in **2014**. Anti-poaching work was stepped up, and the **2022 aerial census** put elephant numbers at roughly **15,500 to 20,000**, stable since 2018. But the population has not started to recover, which UNESCO reads as a sign that poaching continues, and IUCN's 2025 assessment rates the site's conservation outlook as **critical**. The second is the **Julius Nyerere Hydropower Station**, built at **Stiegler's Gorge** on the Rufiji inside the protected area. The dam is **134 metres** high, its reservoir covers about **1,200 km²** and stretches about 100 km, and its nine turbines give **2,115 MW** — which in the year to 31 May 2026 supplied about 45% of the electricity on the national grid. Construction began in 2019, all nine turbines were running by April 2025, and President Samia Suluhu Hassan formally commissioned it on **22 August 2026**. For the country it is its largest power station. For the ecosystem, UNESCO and IUCN regard it as incompatible with World Heritage status: it flooded riverine forest, and it changes the flow of water downstream to the Rufiji delta, a Ramsar wetland with one of the largest mangrove forests in the world. IUCN's assessment records a 2021 recommendation that the site be deleted from the World Heritage List altogether. Both views are fair to hold, and a visitor should know the debate exists. ## Getting in, what it costs, and when to go **By air** is how most visitors arrive. There are scheduled light-aircraft flights from Dar es Salaam, Kilimanjaro and Arusha to airstrips inside the park, including Mtemere, Matambwe, Kiba, Beho Beho and Siwandu, and the hop from Dar takes under an hour. **By road** it is roughly 250 km from Dar es Salaam via **Kibiti**, about six hours to the **Mtemere** or **Matambwe** gates. The speed limit inside is 50 km/h. **Fees.** On TANAPA's published 2023/24 schedule, Nyerere shares the top band with the [Serengeti](https://seeyoutanzania.com/parks/serengeti): **USD 70 per non-East African adult per day in peak season and USD 60 in low**, USD 20 for children aged 5 to 15, and TZS 10,000 for East African citizens. **All of it is exclusive of 18 per cent VAT**, so what you actually pay is USD 82.60 and USD 70.80. TANAPA's low season is only 15 March to 15 May; everything else counts as peak. **Everything else is charged separately.** A boating safari is USD 20 per person; a walking safari USD 20 for one to four hours or USD 25 for longer; a night game drive USD 50. The park guide fee is **USD 40 per group per day** — double the rate in most parks. If you stay in a lodge or camp inside the park, a concession fee of **USD 60 per night** (July to September) or **USD 50** (the rest of the year) is added on top. **Staying.** There are lodges and permanent tented camps, mostly along the river and lakes in the north; public campsites at USD 30 per person per night; special and seasonal campsites at USD 60 in July–September and USD 50 otherwise; and fly-camps at USD 50. TANAPA notes that guided walking safaris with nights in light fly-camps are popular. **When to go.** June to October is dry, the game concentrates at the water and the tracks are passable. The short rains fall in November and December, there is a partial dry spell in January and February, and the long rains run until early May. Temperatures range from about **13 °C** to **41 °C**. Note: Fees are from TANAPA's own 2023/24 tariff schedule, the most recent published, and are quoted exclusive of 18 per cent VAT. They may have risen since; confirm before budgeting. ## Common questions ### Is Nyerere National Park the same as the Selous? Partly. Nyerere was created in 2019 from the Selous Game Reserve: the photographic north along the Rufiji and a long stretch to the south became the national park, 30,893 km². The rest, roughly 20,000 km² in the east, remains Selous Game Reserve. Most lodges, camps and airstrips that were once described as "in the Selous" are now inside Nyerere, and the UNESCO World Heritage Site still uses the Selous name. ### Is Nyerere the largest national park in Africa? TANAPA calls it Africa's largest, but that is not quite right: Namibia's Namib-Naukluft National Park covers about 49,768 km². At 30,893 km², Nyerere is the largest national park in Tanzania and in East Africa, and is slightly bigger than Belgium. ### Can you see the Big Five in Nyerere National Park? Four of them. Elephant, buffalo, lion and leopard are all present. Rhino are not realistically seen: the Selous held around 2,000 black rhino in 1982 but only 45 to 60 by 2010, and the latest census did not count them. TANAPA's own website says the park has most of the Big Five except rhinos. ### Is Nyerere good for African wild dog? Yes — it is one of the best places in the world to see them. The Selous has long held one of the largest surviving populations of this endangered species, and TANAPA describes the park as their last true stronghold in Africa, and its brochure says they are most often found along the escarpment. ### How much does Nyerere National Park cost? TANAPA's 2023/24 schedule sets USD 70 per non-East African adult per day in peak season and USD 60 in low (15 March to 15 May), exclusive of 18 per cent VAT — USD 82.60 and USD 70.80 in practice. Boat safaris (USD 20), walks (USD 20–25), night drives (USD 50), the park guide (USD 40 per group per day) and a nightly concession fee for sleeping inside the park are charged on top. ### How do you get to Nyerere National Park? Most visitors fly: scheduled light aircraft go from Dar es Salaam, Kilimanjaro and Arusha to airstrips inside the park, and the flight from Dar takes under an hour. By road it is roughly 250 km from Dar es Salaam via Kibiti, about six hours to the Mtemere or Matambwe gates. ### What is the dam in Nyerere National Park? The Julius Nyerere Hydropower Station at Stiegler's Gorge on the Rufiji — a 134-metre dam with a reservoir of about 1,200 km² and 2,115 MW of turbines, commissioned on 22 August 2026. It supplies nearly half of Tanzania's grid electricity. UNESCO and IUCN regard it as incompatible with the site's World Heritage status because of the forest it flooded and its effect on the river downstream. ### When is the best time to visit Nyerere? June to October, the dry season, when game gathers at the river and lakes and the tracks are passable. The long rains run until early May. Temperatures range from about 13 °C to 41 °C. ## UNESCO World Heritage: Selous Game Reserve One of the largest remaining wilderness areas in Africa, and a globally important example of miombo woodland. UNESCO lists it for the scale of its wildlife and the unusual range of its habitats. On UNESCO's List of World Heritage in Danger since 2014. - **Year inscribed:** 1982 - **Type:** Natural site - **Since inscription:** Boundary modified 2012 - **UNESCO criteria:** (ix)(x) - **Listed area:** 51,200 km² - **In danger:** 2014–present: poaching, which cut elephant and rhino numbers by almost 90% since 1982; in 2018 the Committee added the logging and dam works for the Julius Nyerere hydropower project From the UNESCO listing: - **Nyerere National Park**, created in 2019 from the northern part of the reserve, is the part most visitors see. - UNESCO records more than **2,100 plant species**, more than any other miombo area, and **350 bird species**. - Its sand rivers, dry most of the year and torrents in the rains, are singled out as one of its most unusual features. - UNESCO has also raised repeated concern over the **Rufiji hydropower dam** built inside the property. [All seven sites in Tanzania](https://seeyoutanzania.com/world-heritage) · [UNESCO listing](https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/199/) ## Checked against - [Nyerere National Park — official page](https://www.tanzaniaparks.go.tz/nationalparks/nyerere), TANAPA - [Tanzania National Parks Tariffs 2023/2024 — schedule to GN No. 490A of 2020](https://www.tanzaniaparks.go.tz/uploads/publications/en-1688147569-TARIFFS%20Design%20202324.pdf), TANAPA - [Nyerere National Park — official park brochure (2025)](https://www.tanzaniaparks.go.tz/uploads/NYERERE_NP_9f9b744e10.pdf), TANAPA - [Selous Game Reserve — World Heritage List](https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/199/), UNESCO - [Selous Game Reserve — 2025 conservation outlook assessment (elephant and rhino census figures, the dam)](https://worldheritageoutlook.iucn.org/explore-sites/wdpaid/5005), IUCN World Heritage Outlook - [Nyerere National Park — Selous rebranded](https://africageographic.com/stories/nyerere-national-park-selous-rebranded/), Africa Geographic - [Tanzania commissions country's largest hydropower plant (24 August 2026)](https://www.energyglobal.com/other-renewables/24082026/reuters-tanzania-commissions-countrys-largest-hydropower-plant/), Energy Global / Reuters - [Julius Nyerere Hydropower Station](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Nyerere_Hydropower_Station), Wikipedia - [Selous Game Reserve — history and elephant decline](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selous_Game_Reserve), Wikipedia - [Frederick Selous — death and grave](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Selous), Wikipedia - [Namib-Naukluft National Park — area](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namib-Naukluft_National_Park), Wikipedia - [Nyerere National Park](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyerere_National_Park), Wikipedia - [Poaching puts Tanzania's Selous Game Reserve on List of World Heritage in Danger (2014)](https://whc.unesco.org/en/news/1150/), UNESCO World Heritage Centre - [UNESCO reiterates its grave concern over planned dam construction within Selous Game Reserve (2018)](https://whc.unesco.org/en/news/1920/), UNESCO World Heritage Centre - [State of conservation of properties on the Danger List — Selous retained (47 COM, 2025)](https://whc.unesco.org/document/221042), UNESCO World Heritage Committee ## Related - [Morogoro region guide](https://seeyoutanzania.com/guides/morogoro) - [Lindi region guide](https://seeyoutanzania.com/guides/lindi) - [Ruvuma region guide](https://seeyoutanzania.com/guides/ruvuma) - [Pwani region guide](https://seeyoutanzania.com/guides/pwani) - [All the parks](https://seeyoutanzania.com/parks) - [World Heritage Sites](https://seeyoutanzania.com/world-heritage)