By Irene Mhlanga (Researcher), African Leadership University, School of Wildlife Conservation
This article is based on a presentation delivered by Irene at the Tusk Conservation Symposium 2024, which took place in Rwanda.
The traditional narrative of wildlife conservation has been about protecting nature from people. However, while the number of protected areas is increasing globally, we’re experiencing a rapid loss of biodiversity, and protected areas are becoming more and more isolated. So, this approach alone is not working.
For conservation to succeed, we need it to be about protecting fauna and flora for people, and not from people. Natural resources can be economic assets that should be invested in to support people and conservation. Currently, however, we still don’t fully understand the economic value of our wildlife assets.
To redress this, in 2021 the African Leadership University (ALU) published the State of the Wildlife Economy in Africa report. This identifies the “Big Five” wildlife economy activities, which together constitute a market share of over $250 billion per year in Africa:
- Wildlife tourism. An annual investment of $2.7m into Zambia’s South Luangwa National Park, for example, drives the $13.9m local economy in the town of Mfuwe.
- Wildlife ranching. While not palatable to all, this can yield large economic dividends. In South Africa, the sale of wild meat generates $56m per year. In most parts of Africa there is a thriving illegal bushmeat trade, which is a threat to many species, but if controlled and regulated could potentially help protect them in some cases.
- Hunting and fishing. This includes the even more controversial practice of trophy hunting, which generates up to $4.5m per year in Namibia. Fishing meanwhile provides a livelihood for many, with approximately 750,000 artisanal fishers just in West Africa, each earning $6–13 per day.
- Carbon. This presents an untapped opportunity with great potential for generating income through offsetting. To date, Carbon Tanzania has already generated almost $500,000 for local communities, while in Zambia, the carbon markets have delivered more than $5m for community development through the Luangwa Community Forests Project.
- Non-timber forest products (NTFPs). These include everything from honey and wild fruits to medicines and rattan, and also hold a high degree of untapped potential. In Zambia, the overall income from NTFPs is approximately $135.8m per year, while in South Africa, Cape Aloe (Aloe ferox) generated approximately $154m between 2005 and 2014.
- All the statistics above can be found in the report here.
Africa especially is not utilising the full potential of its natural resources, despite their comparative abundance relative to other continents. Unlocking the potential of the wildlife economy will require improvements to the overall business environment and a strengthening of the policy, legal and regulatory provisions governing natural resources. The promotion of collaborations and partnerships are also needed, together with improved transparency and data collection. Finally, the capacity of all stakeholders to engage in and manage the wildlife economy needs developing.
To help, ALU has developed the Wildlife Economy Investment Index as a measure of the investment potential in Africa’s wildlife economy, scoring countries according to their investment enabling environment and wildlife status.
Tusk and its project partners meanwhile have the opportunity to help communities understand the value of their natural resources and facilitate their first steps in unlocking the potential of the wildlife economy. In doing so, it is important that they help set the moral compass and ensure that both wildlife and local communities do genuinely benefit from any endeavour. There is then an opportunity for NGOs to support by building capacity, facilitating access to local markets, investors, government bodies and providing expertise that is required to scale community efforts so that we see many more success stories of ethical enterprises benefiting conservation and supporting development.
For more information see https://sowc.alueducation.com/research/ and https://sowc.alueducation.com/weii/
This article is based on a presentation delivered by Irene Mhlanga at the Tusk Conservation Symposium 2024, which took place in Rwanda.
