De Hoop Nature Reserve, Nature reserve in Overberg District Municipality, South Africa.

De Hoop Nature Reserve is a large protected area featuring diverse landscapes that range from steep coastal cliffs to flat marshy plains, home to many different plant and animal species. The reserve integrates both land and sea protection, allowing visitors to experience multiple habitat types in one location.

The South African government bought the farms De Hoop and Windhoek in 1956 and declared the area a nature reserve a year later; the farm De Hoop gave the reserve its name. In the mid-1970s it was dedicated to conserving the Cape Floral ecosystem, and in 1986 the De Hoop Marine Reserve extended protection five kilometres out to sea. UNESCO listed it as part of the Cape Floral Region Protected Areas World Heritage Site in 2004.

The reserve takes its name from the farm De Hoop, bought by the state in 1956 along with neighbouring land. The De Hoop Vlei, a large brackish lagoon in the west, is a Ramsar wetland where thousands of waterbirds gather, among them flamingos, herons, ducks, coots and the threatened black oystercatcher and Damara tern.

An 11 km gravel road with side branches runs through the reserve, and because large predators are absent the whole area can be explored on foot, including multi-day hikes. The eastern section is occasionally closed for missile testing at the Denel Overberg Test Range, but it shuts well before the test date. Whales are watched from the Koppie Alleen viewpoint, where the dunes give way to rocky tidal pools.

The reserve includes a marine protection area that extends several kilometers into the ocean, creating a refuge for sea creatures rarely seen elsewhere. This underwater portion is as important as the land landscapes and makes the reserve stand out across the continent.