Home to the Big Five, the region stands as one of the most biodiverse areas in southern Africa, containing nutrient-rich savannas that support large populations of ungulates and predators.

The Kruger to Canyons Biosphere Reserve in the Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces of South Africa contains two key tourism sites, the Kruger National Park in the east and the Blyde River Canyon in the west. It is also falls within the globally recognised biodiversity hotspot, the Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany, and encompasses three major biomes (savanna, afromontane forest and grassland). The biosphere supports a diverse network of land uses - conservation areas, communally managed nature reserves, communally grazed areas, commercial agriculture and forestry - thereby connecting biodiversity conservation with the sustainable development of the custodians of the land and resources. The high-quality water from the Blyde River feeds the lower lying communal rangelands in the west and sustains the ecology of the Kruger National Park.

The biosphere supports a largely rural and increasing population that depends upon its natural resources for their livelihoods and food security, mainly through cattle grazing and the harvesting of grasses, reeds, wood, fruits, and edible insects. 

However, this landscape faces unique environmental challenges that influence the objectives and decisions of land management, including viral diseases in livestock, rangeland overgrazing, bush encroachment, and sand mining. It remains one of the most densely populated and economically challenged regions, with more than a million people living in conditions of poverty. Communal rangelands, which support livestock and indigenous and local community livelihoods, grapple with threats such as the loss of soil carbon, unrestricted grazing that results in overgrazing, and localised flooding.