The Urgency of Africa’s Conservation Crisis
Before the pandemic struck, tourism in Africa was steadily becoming a key pillar of the continent’s economy. Not only did the sector account for 7.1% of Africa’s total GDP in 2019, it also employed millions of people and served as a large generator of foreign exchange for several of the region’s largest economies.
Source: World Development Indicators
Beyond the economic contribution, tourism has also been critical for sustaining the conservation of Africa’s nearly 2,000 biodiversity areas (home to the world’s largest and most diverse mammal populations) and for promoting inclusive growth at the local level. In recent years, this has been achieved through the implementation of revenue sharing schemes between tourism partners, local landowners and communities which are present in wildlife areas – more commonly known as the community conservancy model. Indeed, this model had been lauded as a new way forward for maintaining Africa’s conservation efforts amidst accelerating pressure on the natural world.
Today natural habitats are decreasing at an unprecedented rate and biodiversity is dwindling rapidly. Over the past few decades, conservation focused tourism has been one of the key silver bullets in a bid to stem the tide.
The onslaught of COVID-19 and the subsequent collapse of international travel, could not have created more damage to conservation initiatives; a buoyant tourism sector now feels like a distant dream. The industry is scrambling to get back on its feet with operators across the continent shutting down part, or all of, their operations or rushing to raise emergency funds (if they have the ability to do so) just to stay afloat.
The threat is more than economic for Africa
In a study commissioned by the African Union, African countries lost almost $55 billion in the tourism and travel sector due to COVID-19 in just the first three months of the pandemic. In the medium term, a drawn-out demand shock to tourism will likely cost millions of jobs, increase government debt burdens, and severely dampen GDP growth prospects.
The COVID-19 economic fallout is of course neither unique to Africa, nor to the tourism sector globally. Emerging market countries around the world are facing similar challenges. In Africa the reality is that governments are unable to provide the support many of their global peers can to their citizens given the lack of access to emergency resources. This has an immediate knock-on impact on wildlife and community conservation programs, which to date have been to a large extent dependent on recurring tourism revenues to sustain themselves.
Take the Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT) which primarily operates in central and northern Kenya. Its community conservation model has enabled over 700,000 people to manage their traditional lands and natural resources whilst ensuring they are custodians to the wildlife in the areas around them. This success has not only led to increasing investment into the institution’s operations, but has also ensured both high level government participation and local community buy-in.
However, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has caused havoc for the conservancies that NRT supports; tourism revenues (which support the jobs of more than 3,600 community members) evaporated, livestock and fish markets where the pastoralists could sell produce instantly closed, and jobs vanished overnight. Emergency donor funding was subsequently required and NRT had to quickly mobilize to engage with international partners to ensure relief mechanisms were forthcoming.
Other conservancies have gone through similar periods of tumult. The Naboisho Conservancy in Kenya’s Greater Maasai Mara Area, whose management was in the process of extending the original 15-year land lease agreements with landowners for an additional 25 years, had to secure emergency donor funding to reach a stop-gap agreement to pay 50% of the fees throughout 2020 to keep landowners from pulling out of the scheme altogether. It also required a landmark demonstration of support from the Kenyan Government who provided $200,000 in funds so that Naboisho, and the other conservancies in the area, could continue to pay the 400 plus rangers that protect its population of lions, elephants, cheetahs, and leopards from poaching.
Prior to COVID-19, such conservancy models had been similarly implemented throughout the rest of the continent. Now their survival is at stake, threatening to turn back the clock on conservation efforts across Africa.
The Greater Maasai Mara Ecosystem, a complex area where wildlife, livestock, and the community all make use of the land and other economic resources. Credit: Mara Wildlife Conservancies Association
These challenges have been compounded at a country level where governments are no longer generating the fees levied on tourists for visiting wildlife destinations. In Uganda, the government charges international tourists US$600 for the opportunity to see the country’s rare silverback gorillas in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. Losing out on this income has not only hurt government collections, but also severely impacted the communities and conservancy programs which rely on them to survive. In Uganda, about 20% of park fees have been directed towards communities living adjacent to national parks.
Figure 1: Gorilla in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, Uganda
Community and Wildlife Conservation is in Dire Need of Finance
In short, without tourism generated revenue it is very difficult for local leadership (political and traditional) to protect both wildlife areas and the communities themselves, on which the wildlife depends.
And as the pandemic rages on, it is easy to envision governments continuing to de-prioritize the tourism sector in favor of more pressing issues such as food security. This will likely mean deeper cuts to staffing as well as conservation and community programs, which will further exacerbate the growing threat to communities and the surrounding wildlife areas.
This is why it is important for funders to act now and come together to collectively support Africa’s conservation tourism sector. Beyond this, it will also be imperative to consider how these areas can diversify their revenue streams to further mitigate the risks of external shocks. The development of both carbon and biodiversity credits provides two interesting opportunities to achieve this, and ultimately support the protection of these wildlife areas.
Africa is home to some of the world’s most varied biodiversity areas and abundant wildlife populations. Whilst prior to the pandemic a number of positive conservation developments were underway, COVID-19 has sent a shockwave through the industry, demonstrating the sector’s vulnerability. At ThirdWay Africa, we are committed to helping the region preserve these precious resources in a sustainable manner that benefits both the communities around them and the region’s population at large. Together, with key partners, we are working to solve some of the most pressing economic issues through innovative, blended finance solutions and encourage those with a focus and passion for the sector to do the same. It is time for all to act.