South Africa’s conservation model: why expanding the use of biodiversity to generate money is a good idea

By Hayley Clements, Stellenbosch University, Alta De Vos, Stellenbosch University, Matthew Child, University of Pretoria

South Africa’s government is calling for public comments on an updated version of its existing biodiversity economy plan.

The National Biodiversity Economy Strategy aims to conserve biodiversity while also contributing to job creation and economic growth. It proposes to do this by promoting sustainable use of the country’s natural resources.

The strategy is being revised so that the country’s national policy is better aligned with recent international policy developments in the biodiversity sphere. The most important of these is the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

This requires countries to develop domestic policies and regulations to ensure that they conserve more of their land in ways that are fair to the people on that land.

Not everyone is happy with the strategy and its proposed revisions. It’s been criticised for monetising and exploiting biodiversity – in other words, using biodiversity to generate money. For example, the strategy lists using wildlife for fair-chase trophy hunting, meat hunting and wild meat sales. It also lists fishing and harvesting indigenous plants (for example, for medicine and tea) and insects (for food).

But we think the strategy is a step in the right direction. We are conservation scientists who have conducted extensive research into the outcomes of different conservation strategies in southern Africa. Our work shows sustainable use of wildlife is an important strategy for expanding the area under wildlife conservation in ways that also benefit local people.

Like other southern African conservation scientists, we support the revisions to the strategy. They show that the government is planning to meet global biodiversity commitments in a way that benefits local people, wildlife and ecosystems.

The strategy addresses gaps in South Africa’s conservation model, such as the fact that it still largely excludes previously disadvantaged groups of people. It also aligns ambitious global goals for expanding protected areas with the country’s pressing development needs.

In our view the revised strategy is an important step towards addressing these needs.

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