Sustainable Use: A Contentious Promise

A Case Study on International Funding of Consumptive Sustainable Wildlife Use in South Africa's Biodiversity Economy

In South Africa, sustainable use of wildlife is widely recognised as providing economic incentives and actively engaging rural communities in conservation management. Aiming to combat rampant poverty and wildlife crime in communities around protected areas (PAs), the country’s biodiversity economy envisions scaling (non-)consumptive activities in the pursuit of creating economically and environmentally viable wildlife businesses. Nevertheless, past findings suggest that international funding of previous communal resource programmes has focused mainly on the development of non–consumptive uses, namely ecotourism, while neglecting multidimensional benefits arising from consumptive wildlife uses (i.e. hunting, bioprospecting). Using qualitative research, this study assesses international conservation finance actors' (ICFAs) attitudes toward consumptive sustainable use and its perceived potential and limitations in scaling up in the biodiversity economy.