FUNDING CONSERVATION

“To pass future tests, funding for conservation must diversify so that the contributions of healthy ecosystems to African economies can continue.”

We can now add Covid-19 to the list of threats facing African wildlife. The international travel bans aiming to contain the virus are having negative impacts on tourism in Africa, where the hunting and photo-tourism industries provide a chief motivation for wildlife conservation and much of the funding that sustains it. The extent of the damage to conservation efforts will not be known until after the current crisis has passed, but there is no question that the resiliency of African conservation programmes is now being tested.

South Africa provides an illustration of what may unfold across