Wildlife tourism holds promise for African growth
Innovative models in wildlife tourism could promote both conservation and economic development across Africa.
In a nutshell
- Tourism is a linchpin of Africa’s growth prospects
- Wildlife tourism will face challenges as the continent urbanizes
- Emerging businesses models can promote broad-based prosperity
Africa has the fastest-growing population of any continent in the world, but many of its countries suffer from endemic poverty and hunger, exacerbated by weak economic growth. Africa’s population expands by 2.5 percent per year and is expected to increase by 740 million people by 2050 – yet, over a third currently earns $2.15 per day or less.
Far too many people are poor and unemployed with dismal prospects. Soon, according to projections, the quickly growing working population will be competing for only 3 million new formal wage jobs created every year. A forecasted 2.5 percent economic growth rate is an underwhelming prospect for the 12 million young people entering the labor market annually. Worse, there are some 226 million people now starving.
The travel and tourism sector is a rare bright spot, creating 1.8 million new jobs in 2023, and is expected to add $168 billion to the continent’s gross domestic product (GDP) over the next decade. About 25 million Africans are already employed in tourism, comprising 5.6 percent of all jobs on the continent last year.
A mainstay of tourism to Africa is wildlife tourism, creating $12 billion in annual revenues across countries like Kenya, Tanzania and Botswana. The elephant in the room is whether this industry can continue to thrive in the future as the continent urbanizes. By 2033, more than half its population is expected to live in cities. Rapid urbanization will create more pressure than ever on Africa’s unique ecosystems.
The survival of wildlife tourism depends on rural conservation, currently under threat from development, farming and wildlife poaching. But so far, local communities have not benefited enough from conservation or tourism to provide adequate incentives to protect the land and its wildlife.
An outdated approach to conservation
The colonialist approach of “fortress conservation” – creating isolated areas to keep ecosystems away from human interference – meant that local people were pushed off conservation land, which was then run by the state. Governments eventually allowed the development of tourism access, either through state-owned services or privately owned safari lodge operators and professional hunters. Enjoying little or no benefit from these conserved lands, locals had little incentive to protect or participate meaningfully in the wildlife tourism economy.
Forbidding practices like traditional subsistence hunting and harvesting of wild fruits contributed to alienation from wildlife tourism, making it easier for criminal cartels to poach high-value species. For instance, in South Africa last year, 406 rhinos were poached from state-owned properties and 93 from privately owned reservations. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime published a World Wildlife Report in 2020 highlighting the scope and nature of these crimes, covering the poaching and trafficking of everything from elephants to pangolins. Wildlife crime is global, as demonstrated by some 180,000 seizures across 149 countries, including nearly 6,000 different species between 1999 and 2018. Corruption drives the depletion of Africa’s natural fauna and flora resources through transnational crime. Criminals are stealing the future of Africa’s wildlife tourism industry – often with extremist terrorist groups among the beneficiaries.
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A partnership model
Protecting African wildlife areas is imperative for stability and growth, but the current system of fortress conservation is outdated. In Botswana, for instance, a 130,000-strong elephant herd was so large and destructive to flora and people that President Mokgweetsi Masisi threatened to send 20,000 elephants to Germany after the German Green Party objected to elephant-hunting trophies being allowed into the country.
Today, Botswana intends to capitalize on its successful wildlife conservation and tourism, seeking local participation in the lucrative high-end safari lodge concession trade. The hope is that locals will have a bigger stake in the industry and develop incentives to protect conservation areas. There is a risk of rent-seeking in this approach: Well-connected individuals may claim the required 30 percent “local” stake, leaving the communities that are genuinely close to these sites still alienated.
However, models of what can be done well are already showing signs of success. In one notable case study, the Khumaga community along the Boteti River is demonstrating a different approach by working with Moela Lodge Safaris as co-owners of its lodge and tourism operation. The lodge was built by community members largely using local materials, on a site that provides access to one of Africa’s last great migrations, which brings thousands of zebras and wildebeest to the valley below the riverbanks.
This joint effort between Botswanan and foreign investors, experienced lodge operators and the Khumaga community (which owns the rights to the land) has established a high-end safari and lodge operation. The community’s share in the entity is held in a trust, and locals have been employed in construction, as staff and even to build a community arts center in the village. The reserve was converted from farming to wildlife by the Khumaga village’s Chief Ngande in the early 1980s. His grandson, the current chief, believes the lodge can turn the village into a tourism hub for the Kalahari, creating more jobs for his community.
Involved investors (among them Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex) hope the project and others like it can become a blueprint for wildlife tourism in the future – in Botswana, and perhaps across the continent. Other sites doing model work include the Setari Camp in Botswana’s Okavango Delta and the Northern Wildlife Trust and Borana Conservancy in Kenya. Significantly, the South African Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment recently released a new proposal to establish seven integrated “mega-landscapes.” This would monetize consumptive wildlife uses that aim to grow local and international wildlife hunting markets, including in-country fair-chase trophy hunting. Captive breeding of lions and rhinos for hunting purposes, or “canned hunting,” is being phased out.
Scenarios
More likely: The rise of new models
In the likely scenario, the Botswanan government’s new policy requiring at least 30 percent local ownership for safari lodge concessions will promote local interest. Models like the Khumaga approach will become successful, both commercially and developmentally, spurring tourism opportunities. Such successes are likely to push other lodges on tribal lands into similar arrangements and encourage other tribal communities to follow suit.
Already, the approach is spilling over to Botswana’s neighbors, Namibia, Zambia and South Africa. Many countries in eastern Africa are moving in a similar direction, with central and western Africa far behind. Eastern and southern Africa are likely to become conservation hubs of Africa through wildlife tourism partnerships between commercial operators and local communities. This will make wildlife tourism, including consumptive use, a growing economic driver for rural areas in these regions.
Less likely: The spread of existing problems
South Africa’s “empowerment” policy – which requires a certain percentage of shares in businesses to be held by black shareholders – has often been contentious, in many cases failing to bring broad-based benefits to previously disadvantaged communities. Corruption has also played a role in discouraging investment partnerships, while crime and governmental incompetence (such as problems issuing tourist visas in South Africa) have discouraged tourism.
Should such issues prevail and worsen in Botswana and across southern Africa, the rise of co-owned wildlife tourism assets between local communities and commercial operators will be stunted. While less likely in Botswana, given its performance so far, such a scenario would prevent wildlife tourism from encouraging rural economic growth and development in the region and throughout Africa.
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