Conservation Practitioners’ Perspectives on Management Responses to Poaching in South African Protected Areas

Abstract

Biodiversity across Africa faces escalating threats from agricultural expansion, urbanisation, resource overexploitation, and pollution, particularly at the margins of protected areas (PAs). These land‑use changes intensify interactions between people and wildlife by compressing habitats, increasing competition for space and resources, and disrupting ecological processes, thereby exacerbating human–wildlife conflict and threatening conservation outcomes. In this context, conservation practitioners play an important role in managing these conflicts by implementing conservation management interventions. A total of 49 conservation practitioners across KwaZulu‑Natal, Limpopo, and Mpumalanga in South Africa were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire to document the implementation of key conservation measures and to examine their association with practitioner-reported poaching occurrence. Most reserves implemented perimeter fencing and shared boundaries with adjacent local communities. Community engagement and environmental education programmes were also widely reported. The proportion of practitioners reporting poaching was highest in KwaZulu‑Natal (84.2%), followed by Limpopo (71%) and Mpumalanga (61.5%). Binary logistic regression revealed that community engagement was significantly associated with lower odds of poaching. Sustaining PAs requires integrated strategies that combine enforcement, community engagement, and adaptive management.