Opinion: Southern Africa is seen as a leader in wildlife conservation, but its market-driven approach is deeply flawed

Southern Africa's wildlife economy is as a successful model. The idea behind this model is that biodiversity and wildlife are used as the basis of sustainable economic growth, through an increase in wildlife numbers and in a country's revenue.
But how successful has the model actually been in places like Botswana, Namibia and South Africa? We recently edited a in the scientific journal Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space on the theme of southern African conservation. We are looking into social and historical developments of environmental issues. In the issue we argue that, in fact, the southern African wildlife economy is socially and environmentally unsustainable.
There are three main reasons for this. First, the model largely depends on fossil fuels. Wildlife estates, where wealthy people live alongside wildlife in gated communities, and luxury tourism consume a lot of energy and other resources. Second, the model's market-driven approach allows social inequalities to continue. Third, it tends to ignore local realities while advancing global biodiversity conservation goals.
We argue that the sector should instead adopt a approach. This means finding ways for diverse humans and other species to live together rather than being separated into pristine wildlife areas and highly unequal "human" spaces. In this way, conservation can help build a sustainable economy of care rather than an exploitative economy of growth.
Brief history of southern African conservation
In the 19th and 20th centuries, the colonial era, southern Africa was at the forefront of establishing protected areas. Examples include South Africa's , in Zimbabwe and in Namibia.
Setting aside land for parks by colonists' hunting interests. Later, worries about declining wildlife numbers (partly as a result of that hunting) and farmland expansion led to the creation of more protected areas.
The 1960s saw an increase in private conservation enterprises such as hunting, wildlife breeding and photographic tourism, especially in South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe. Often this involved evicting people from their land. Later, fences were erected in what came to be termed "."
This had several negative consequences. Rural popluations' diets became less diverse because they could no longer hunt some species. What's more, of these areas was common.
Because of this, and global shifts in development thinking in the 1970s and 1980s, community-based conservation to be alongside fortress conservation.
This approach combined conservation with development. Financial benefits through tourism and trophy hunting were supposed to flow to local communities. Despite some successes, it had and its popularity waned.
The late 1990s brought yet another initiative that promised to alleviate poverty and conserve nature: transfrontier conservation or "peace parks."
But a swift (especially rhino poaching) around 2007 reinvigorated older ideas about fortress conservation. There was also a drive towards "": using military methods to pursue conservation.
None of these approaches dealt effectively with environmental, socio-economic and racial injustices.
The wildlife economy
Over the past decade, the wildlife economy has emerged as a proposed "new" solution to protect biodiversity and grow the economy.
In fact it follows a long history of market-based mechanisms to achieve conservation. One older form is (luxury) nature-based tourism. Newer ways to commodify nature include wildlife estates and timeshare agreements in private reserves.
The current model is based on the idea that privatization and commodification of wildlife is moral, inclusive and environmentally sustainable. But it's not鈥攅specially against the background of highly uneven socio-economic and racial inequalities all over southern Africa.
The wildlife economy is unsustainable and strengthens injustices in three ways.
First, it is environmentally unsustainable because of its . Fossil fuel companies power the flights and other transport that bring people to wildlife spaces.
Second, the wildlife economy is socially unsustainable. Ownership of land and access to natural resources remains .
These inequalities create what we call a "new green apartheid." For example, some communities of Black people in and near conservation areas . Meanwhile, mostly white tourists and estate inhabitants receive water from boreholes to enjoy wildlife, swimming pools, or even golf courses.
Third, the wildlife economy approach tends to ignore local realities while advancing biodiversity conservation goals.
Take the case of cheetah conservation in Namibia. The business model of saving cheetahs in Namibia is spearheaded by conservation NGOs. They are mainly preoccupied with pleasing global audiences and funders while local livestock farmers' issues with human-wildlife conflict.
In Botswana, environmental policies that receive global approval .
These examples show how local people's livelihoods, land ownership and cultures, but also the climate, tend to fall by the wayside in pursuit of species numbers and landscape restoration.
Towards convivial conservation?
Conservation in southern Africa is ripe for a solution that goes to the roots of the problems. This is the approach taken under , which is a vision, a politics and a set of governance principles for the future of conservation.
Over the last five years, convivial conservation has gained traction in . Proponents of the model are investigating how to move beyond the old ways of doing things by including different philosophies and value systems, such as the notion of . It also investigates conservation possibilities beyond market mechanisms, such as the potential of a .
In sum, convivial conservation focuses on "living with" biodiversity over the long term, instead of exploiting it at the cost of everything else.
Provided by The Conversation
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