Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Ngorongoro Conservation Area
View of the crater
Location	Ngorongoro District, Arusha Region, Tanzania
Coordinates	03°12′36″S 35°27′36″E / 3.21000°S 35.46000°E / -3.21000; 35.46000
Area	8,292 km2 (3,202 sq mi)[1]
Established	1959
Visitors	Over 500,000 per year[2]
Governing body	Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Type	Mixed
Criteria	(iv)(vii)(viii)(ix)(x)
Designated	1979 (3rd session)
Reference no.	39
Region	Africa
Endangered	1984–1989

Ngorongoro Conservation Area (UK: /(ə)ŋˌɡɔːrəŋˈɡɔːroʊ/,^[3] US: /ɛŋˌɡɔːroʊŋˈɡɔːroʊ, əŋˌɡoʊrɔːŋˈɡoʊroʊ/^[4][5]) is a protected area and a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Ngorongoro District, 180 km (110 mi) west of Arusha City in Arusha Region, within the Crater Highlands geological area of northeastern Tanzania. The area is named after Ngorongoro Crater, a large volcanic caldera within the area. The Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority administers the conservation area, an arm of the Tanzanian government, and its boundaries follow the boundary of the Ngorongoro District in Arusha Region. The western portion of the park abuts the Serengeti National Park, and the area comprising the two parks and Kenya's Maasai Mara game reserve is home to Great Migration, a massive annual migration of millions of wildebeest, zebras, gazelles, and other animals. The conservation area also contains Olduvai Gorge, one of the most important paleoanthropological sites in the world.

The 2009 Ngorongoro Wildlife Conservation Act placed new restrictions on human settlement and subsistence farming in the Crater, displacing Maasai pastoralists, most of whom had been relocated to Ngorongoro from their ancestral lands ^{[disputed – discuss]} to the north when the British colonial government established Serengeti National Park in 1959.^[6][7]