CITES has degenerated into a battleground in the war between Western NGOs and African conservationists

Countries in southern Africa host the majority of the continent’s elephants, lions, rhinoceroses (black and white) and giraffes, to mention a few of the best-known animal species. Since the 1970s, countries such as Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa have increased their wildlife populations inside and outside their national parks. During the same period, most east and west African countries have witnessed massive declines in their wildlife populations. Africa as a whole is conserving its large herbivores and carnivores better than any other continent besides North America, despite its relative lack of financial resources.

Given the global biodiversity crisis, one would think that the particularly successful southern African countries would be celebrated and their policies studied, and, if not copied elsewhere, at least respected. Yet international organisations that claim to protect wildlife decry southern African policies while trying to prop up other policies that have clearly failed. Why?

The answer lies in ideology rather than evidence.

Part of the southern African recipe for success is granting landowners and communities that live outside formally protected areas rights to sell regulated numbers of these animals to international hunting clients. These rights provide varied incentives for people living on the land to tolerate wildlife that can be dangerous or difficult to live with due to damage to livestock, crops or other infrastructure. Wildlife thus becomes a valuable renewable resource that is protected by the people who share their land with wild animals.

Hunting tourism takes place in remote areas that are often unattractive for photographic tourism, or where the latter industry is still in its infancy. These areas differ markedly from the well-known picturesque landscapes in other parts of Africa. Hunting is, therefore, the only sustainable, wildlife-based land use in many areas.

Before Covid-19 destroyed all forms of tourism, hunting in Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana (before the 2014-2019 hunting suspension) and South Africa made a significant contribution to rural incomes through direct payments, meat distribution and employment, particularly in remote areas with low income from tourism and agricultural activities. The local wildlife custodians invest in their own anti-poaching efforts, thus sharing the burden of conservation with their respective governments. This form of hunting, therefore, not only reduces poverty (contributing to the United Nations Agenda 2030), but provides positive conservation outcomes for iconic African species.

Improved livelihoods, reduced poaching and increasing wildlife populations are what everyone wants, right? Not if you value individual animal rights above everything else.

Southern African countries respect different conservation models practised in other African states, but reserve their right to implement their own strategies that have evolved over time and have proven to be largely successful.

These decades-old decisions have clearly failed and may have even facilitated the high levels of poaching that impact these species. No compensation for income lost as a result of the trade bans has been provided to affected African governments, despite a promise to that effect made by the US in 1989 regarding ivory.