ENSURING ELEPHANT SURVIVAL THROUGH IMPROVING COMMUNITY BENEFITS

The paper argues that elephant survival depends on incentivising local communities to value living elephants over ivory through effective CBNRM. It examines the evolution of these policies in Southern Africa, comparing models in Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa, while highlighting governance challenges such as elite capture and the need for diversified, non-consumptive livelihood strategies.

• Elephant poaching persists as long as community members perceive the exchange value of ivory to be higher than the use value of a living elephant; therefore, conservation requires that the economic loss from the ivory trade ban be replaced by increased use value, such as wildlife tourism, accruing to near-park communities.
• CBNRM is presented as a means to simultaneously achieve biodiversity preservation and livelihood improvement, but its success depends on wildlife being an economically competitive land-use option compared to agriculture or livestock.
• Namibia's communal conservancy model is cited as a best-practice example due to broad and secure community rights, the absence of middlemen between communities and the private sector, and the fact that 100% of wildlife benefits are retained locally.
• Botswana's 2014 ban on commercial hunting has created risks for communities previously reliant on trophy hunting revenues, as some areas lack the scenic appeal required for photographic tourism, potentially leading to land conversion for competing uses.
• Governance failures in CBNRM often include 'elite capture', where local elites misappropriate funds, as well as a lack of transparency, poor financial management, and a lack of technical capacity within community-based organisations (CBOs).
• To be sustainable, CBNRM institutions should be designed to be congruent with existing traditional democratic institutions, such as the kgotlas in Botswana, to improve accountability and ownership.
• The paper suggests that communities should diversify livelihood strategies—including non-timber forest products like honey and ximenia, or payment for environmental services (PES)—to avoid over-reliance on volatile wildlife tourism markets.
• Effective conservation requires moving beyond narrow financial metrics to include 'existence' values (spiritual and intrinsic) and ecosystem service valuations in national accounting to better inform land-use decisions.

APA

ChevallieR, R., & haRvey, R. (2016). ENSURING ELEPHANT SURVIVAL THROUGH IMPROVING COMMUNITY BENEFITS. South African Institute of International Affairs. https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Occasional-Paper-243.pdf

Chicago

ChevallieR, Romy, and Ross haRvey. ENSURING ELEPHANT SURVIVAL THROUGH IMPROVING COMMUNITY BENEFITS. South African Institute of International Affairs, 2016. https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Occasional-Paper-243.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=ChevallieR |first1=Romy |last2=haRvey |first2=Ross |title=ENSURING ELEPHANT SURVIVAL THROUGH IMPROVING COMMUNITY BENEFITS |publisher=South African Institute of International Affairs |date=September 2016 |url=https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Occasional-Paper-243.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{chevallier2016ensuring, author = {ChevallieR, Romy and haRvey, Ross}, title = {{ENSURING ELEPHANT SURVIVAL THROUGH IMPROVING COMMUNITY BENEFITS}}, institution = {South African Institute of International Affairs}, year = {2016}, month = sep, url = {https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Occasional-Paper-243.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }