Biodiversity at risk: SA nature reserves face infrastructure collapse and poaching pressures

South Africa’s provincial nature reserves are facing deepening crises of governance, funding and ecological decline, yet the department of forestry, fisheries and the environment has stopped short of committing to any direct intervention, according to a recent parliamentary reply. In awritten response to questionsposed in the National Council of Provinces, the minister,Willie Aucamp, acknowledged the “challenges, issues or findings” affecting provincial reserves but distanced his department from the recommendations contained in areport by the EMS Foundation— which documents systemic failures across the sector. The questions, submitted by Freedom Front Plus MP Tanja Breedt, referred to the EMS Foundation’s findings as well as a2023 assessmentby the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) and the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (Wessa).

Both reports described widespread underfunding, collapsing infrastructure, staff shortages, weakened biodiversity protection and increasing commercial pressures in provincial reserves. In his reply, Aucamp said the EMS Foundation report was an independent civil society initiative that had not been “legitimised” or adopted as a government report. As a result, the department “cannot respond to or implement the recommendations contained in an external report that has not been adopted as an official government report”, he said.

Instead, Aucamp pointed to a ministerial task team appointed in August 2023 to investigate challenges hindering management authorities from fulfilling their conservation mandates and affecting the management efficacy of the vital protected areas. The minister said the task team’s mandate was to investigate systemic challenges such as underfunding, infrastructure collapse, staff shortages and other operational challenges, as well as identify gaps in mandate fulfillment to provide actionable recommendations on how to address the systemic issues. The team was investigating and providing recommendations.

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The findings and recommendations of its report would be submitted to the cabinet for consideration. Once adopted, its recommendations and findings would be the official report that informed the government department’s actions, the minister said. However, neither were timelines provided for the completion of the investigation nor was any indication given of interim measures to address what the civil society reports describe as an accelerating deterioration of provincial protected areas.

While Aucamp said the department confirmed that it had considered how failing provincial reserves could affect the implementation of theNational Biodiversity Economy Strategy, its own assessment raised further concerns. The minister said the task team report on financial challenges experienced by provincial conservation authorities, in particular provincial nature reserves, had revealed a decline in potential revenue generation, investment opportunities, private–public partnerships and loss of relevant critical skills. Despite that, the department continues to advance plans to expand the consumptive use of wildlife under a draft biodiversity economy strategy that has yet to be approved by the cabinet.

Proposed measures include increasing the availability of Big Five animals for trophy hunting; expanding recreational and traditional hunting; scaling up commercial game meat harvesting from extensive wildlife systems; and growing industries based on animal derivatives such as skins and hides. The cabinet has approved a national game meat strategy, published in late 2023.

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