Wildlife Conservation and Community-Based Natural Resource Management in Southern Africa's Private Nature Reserves

In southern Africa, legislative changes that devolved wildlife management authority on private land to landowners and growth in the commercial value of wildlife resulted in a substantial increase in private land dedicated to wildlife. In addition, groups of landowners within the bounds of the Great Limpopo Conservation Area have incorporated their properties into private nature reserves, thereby expanding the management scale of common-pool wildlife resources. Secondary data and experience with the reserves form the basis of our exploration of the contribution of private landholdings to wildlife conservation and the extent to which three private nature reserves appear to exhibit characteristics that promote effective community-based natural resource management (CBNRM). The combined area of private land with wildlife-based enterprises in South Africa is more than double that of formal protected areas, and the three private nature reserves exhibit, to varying degrees, characteristics that enhance CBNRM and coordinated decision making for wildlife conservation.