The Ngorongoro Conservation Area is different from the National Parks as it is meant to cater for multiple land use. Here Human activities are allowed to co-exist with natural resources - wildlife, forestry etc. This special area covers 8300 Sq. kms of varied landscapes which include, the Northern forested highlands, craters, volcano cones, gorges, plains, rivers and lakes. Ngorongoro is one of the worlds’ natural wonders. Ngorongoro Conservation Area is run by a government body - The Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority.

Due to its varied landscapes, wildlife is plentiful. It is only here one can see the black rhinos in the wild. The forest animals include, buffalo, bushbuck, leopard, bush pigs, monkeys, birds like the beautiful turacos, sunbirds etc. Within the crater, you have the buffalo, wildebeest, hartebeests, gazelles, impala, zebra, baboon and hippos. The population is constantly checked up by the larger predators like lions, hyenas and leopards. There are also the smaller predators such as jackals, foxes etc. In the alkaline lakes you have the flamingos, stocks, ducks and geese etc.

Ngorongoro Crater has been called the eighth wonder of the natural world. It has been designated a World Heritage Site and a Biosphere Reserve and the crater deserves every bit of its fame yet it represents only about 3 percent of the entire Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA), which covers 8,280 square kilometres (3,196 square miles), stretching from Lake Eyasi in the Rift Valley north to the Serengeti Plains. The region contains at least seven ex­tinct volcanoes and is probably one of the most varied terrains in East Africa. Altitude in the park varies from Lake Eyasi at 1,000 metres (3,280 feet) to the peak of Lolmalasin mountain at 3,640 metres (11,940 feet).

The Ngorongoro Highlands on their southern and eastern slopes are clothed in forest which captures water for all the farmland to the south and also supports Manyara's special ground water forest at the base of the rift. The massif of old volcanoes surrounding the Ngorongoro caldera includes several craters and mountains of beauty and importance.The plains to the north are critical to the migration of wildebeest. Note that at least half of the Serengeti Plains are in Ngorongoro Conservation Area and another plain, the Salei, is protected only by the NCA. Annual rainfall ranges from around 300 mm (11.7 inches) in the dry regions such as Lake Eyasi to over 1,000 mm (39 inches) up. in the highlands.

 The NCA was set up in the late 1950s in response to complaints 'by the Maasai that they were being pushed out of their tradi­tional grazing areas by the formation of Serengeti National Park, which at that time included Ngorongoro. The conser­vation area was set up as a unique test of the idea that humans who lead a pastoral life-style, utilizing livestock only for sustenance, should be able to co-exist with wildlife. The area was also to cater to tourists, protect the forest to the south and guard' unique archaeological sites such as Olduvai Gorge and Laetoli. The Laetoli site has footprints of our hominid ancestors that are dated firmly at over 3.5 million years old.