{"id":785949,"date":"2026-07-07T11:35:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T11:35:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/785949\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T11:35:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T11:35:19","slug":"africas-wildlife-laws-follow-a-colonial-model-which-separates-people-and-animals-why-its-not-working","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/785949\/","title":{"rendered":"Africa\u2019s wildlife laws follow a colonial model which separates people and animals: why it\u2019s not working"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa is home to many iconic national parks and marine reserves, such as Virunga<\/a> in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Niokolo-Koba<\/a> in Senegal, Kruger National Park<\/a> in South Africa and Serengeti National Park<\/a> in Tanzania. Many of them were established during the colonial era, and nearly half are still managed by government agencies.<\/p>\n

In total, the continent houses 8,924<\/a> protected areas, which make up 14.51%<\/a> of Africa\u2019s total land area.<\/p>\n

Read more:
\n Community lessons on how humans and wildlife can co-exist<\/a><\/p>\n

I am a scholar-practitioner with more than ten years\u2019 expertise in environmental governance. I have researched what happens when communities are pushed out of protected areas and why these areas fail both people and wildlife.<\/p>\n

In my latest study<\/a>, I analysed wildlife laws in all 54 African countries and found they were similar. This made me wonder: where did the laws and regulations come from, why were they so similar and how have they endured even after independence?<\/p>\n

Read more:
\n Land reform in South Africa: how one community set up a successful game reserve<\/a><\/p>\n

I found that many protected areas across the continent are still shaped<\/a> by a colonial-era system that separates people from nature and restricts local communities\u2019 access to land and resources.<\/p>\n

This is the Convention<\/a> Relative to the Preservation of Fauna and Flora in their Natural State (known as the London Convention). It was signed in London in 1933 by the then colonial Union of South Africa and several European colonial powers. This agreement set out the rules that shaped wildlife conservation across much of the continent for decades.<\/p>\n

The convention had its roots in an idea that European wildlife preservationists came up with in the late 1800s. They decided that the world\u2019s first national park, Yellowstone National Park<\/a> in the US, should be used as the model in Africa to preserve scenic areas. <\/p>\n

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\n Kenyan wildlife policies must extend beyond protected areas<\/a><\/p>\n

The 1933 London Convention established national parks where people were excluded and game reserves where European hunters were allowed. The convention was also driven by fears that expanding agriculture, fuelled by new farming equipment and firearms, was rapidly destroying wildlife habitats across eastern and central Africa. <\/p>\n

After independence, African states inherited and continued this system by supporting wildlife laws and regulations based on the London Convention.<\/p>\n

I found<\/a> that using this governance model leaves no room in African countries for community access to the areas. It cuts off community rights over their ancestral lands. It doesn\u2019t protect wildlife either, because it confines animal species to small, disconnected areas where they become isolated. When animals cannot move between areas, neither can seeds, pollen, or other plant materials that rely on wind, water and animals to spread.<\/p>\n

Read more:
\n Kenya\u2019s wildlife conservancies make old men rich, while making women and young people poorer<\/a><\/p>\n

Over time, this weakens genetic diversity<\/a>. Plants and animals become more vulnerable to disease and climate change.<\/p>\n

I argue that Africa\u2019s protected areas must be redesigned to support community livelihoods. This is not a favour to communities, but as a condition for the protected areas\u2019 survival and legitimacy.<\/p>\n

The history of Africa\u2019s protected areas<\/p>\n

My review noted<\/a> that across the continent, communities have been evicted<\/a> and displaced<\/a> to make way for protected areas. <\/p>\n

Those communities who lived on the edges of protected areas were denied access<\/a> to their land and prevented<\/a> from using the resources in the protected areas. <\/p>\n

Read more:
\n Africa\u2019s savannah elephants: small \u2018fortress\u2019 parks aren\u2019t the answer \u2013 they need room to roam<\/a><\/p>\n

Although African countries\u2019 struggles for independence centred on returning land taken by colonisers back to the people, wildlife preservation groups pushed back against this. By the time that liberation struggles got underway in the 1950s, wildlife preservationists had set up powerful international organisations<\/a>. <\/p>\n

For example, at the 1961 conference attended by representatives of several African states, President Julius Nyerere of Tanzania presented the Arusha Manifesto<\/a> which endorsed the London Convention\u2019s model of protected areas.<\/p>\n

Read more:
\n What Cameroon can teach others about managing community forests<\/a><\/p>\n

From this time<\/a>, the colonial protected area model has been justified on ecological and economic grounds. However, it is important to remember that Yellowstone National Park was established in 1872. \u201cEcology\u201d entered the Oxford English Dictionary in 1875, and \u201cecosystem\u201d only appeared in 1935.<\/p>\n

This suggests that the original justification for protected areas was not ecological in the way we understand it today, as the preservationist model was driven by aesthetics and not by ecological science.<\/p>\n

What needs to happen next<\/p>\n

Africa\u2019s wildlife laws still reflect a colonial mindset<\/a>. They push people off their ancestral lands and treat local communities as a threat to conservation. Wildlife laws turn protected areas into tourist destinations rather than places that support local livelihoods. <\/p>\n

The result is that people who have lived alongside wildlife for generations can be punished for hunting or fishing to feed their families. At the same time, mining and oil projects are often allowed within protected areas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Read more:
\n Community-based wildlife conservation is bringing success to Tanzania<\/a><\/p>\n

The idea that protected areas in their current exclusionary form are necessary to attract thousands of international tourists who bring an income also needs closer scrutiny. Tourism generates income, but much of the money goes to companies based outside the continent. Local people are often displaced and see few benefits. <\/p>\n

Africa is expected to have the world\u2019s largest population by 2050<\/a>. This means that conservation must support people\u2019s needs for land, food, water and jobs. New laws are needed that recognise communities as partners in protecting nature, not obstacles to it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Africa is home to many iconic national parks and marine reserves, such as Virunga in the Democratic Republic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":785950,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":["post-785949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=785949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/785950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=785949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=785949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=785949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}