Nyerere vs Selous Game Reserve: What’s the Difference? (2026)

If you’ve been researching a southern Tanzania safari for more than about ten minutes, you’ve probably hit this: one article calls it Nyerere National Park, another calls it Selous Game Reserve, and a camp’s own website might use both names on the same page. That’s not sloppy writing. It’s because, in 2019, one place quietly became two.

The short answer

Selous Game Reserve, once Africa’s largest protected area, was split by the Tanzanian government in 2019. The northern section roughly 30,893 square kilometres, centred on the Rufiji River was upgraded to national park status and renamed Nyerere National Park, after Julius Nyerere, Tanzania’s founding president. The southern section kept the Selous name and remains a game reserve used for licensed hunting concessions, off-limits to standard photographic safaris.

So when a tour operator or lodge today advertises a “Selous safari,” they almost always mean Nyerere. The wildlife, the river, the camps you’d actually stay at all of it is the same ground people have been calling Selous for decades. Only the paperwork, the boundary, and the name changed.

Why the split happened

The reserve had operated for decades on a de facto split anyway: the northern section, only a small slice of the total area, had long been reserved for photographic tourism, while the much larger southern portion was divided into hunting blocks. Formalizing that division into two separately governed areas gave the photographic section national park status meaning it’s now run directly by the Tanzania National Parks Authority (TANAPA), under the stricter protections and management standards that come with national park designation, rather than the game reserve rules that still apply to hunting concessions.

What actually changed on the ground

For a visitor, less than you’d think.

• Same wildlife, same landscape. The Rufiji River, its lakes and channels, the elephant and buffalo herds, the wild dog population — none of that moved. You’re looking at the same ecosystem people have safaried through for generations.

• Same camps, in most cases. Well-known lodges like Sand Rivers Selous, Roho ya Selous, and Selous Safari Lodge kept their historic names even though they now sit inside Nyerere National Park’s boundaries. Don’t let a “Selous” name in a lodge brochure confuse you — check whether the camp is actually in the northern (Nyerere) or southern (Selous) section.

• Higher fees. Because Nyerere is now a national park rather than a game reserve, it’s moved into TANAPA’s premium fee tier — noticeably higher than the old game reserve rates.

• No hunting. The area now called Nyerere is exclusively photographic. Hunting continues only in the southern Selous Game Reserve blocks, which standard safari itineraries never visit.

Which one will you actually be booking?

If you’re planning a standard safari game drives, boat safaris, walking safaris, a stay at any of the well-known riverside camps you are booking Nyerere National Park, whatever name shows up on the marketing material. The southern Selous hunting blocks are a separate product entirely, aimed at licensed hunting clients, and aren’t part of any typical tourism itinerary.

If you see “Selous” used on a site or in a quote, it’s almost always shorthand for the same destination legacy naming that hasn’t caught up, not a different place being offered to you. Worth a quick confirmation with your operator all the same, just so you know exactly which section and which camp you’re paying for.