Governance-related conservation conflicts in a new UNESCO Man and Biosphere Reserve

The UNESCO Man and Biosphere Programme promotes culturally appropriate and environmentally sustainable ways to improve human livelihoods. The programme's success depends on alignment between local communities and conservation authorities. In this study, we examine different sources of conservation conflict in Tšehlanyane National Park, the protected area at the core of the newly designated Matšeng Biosphere Reserve (established in 2021), the first in the landlocked Kingdom of Lesotho. Herdsmen, whose livestock used to graze the high-altitude grasslands, now face livestock confiscation and are retaliating with vandalism, arson, and poaching. Using the Nominal Group Technique, a structured group-based method to build consensus, we show that despite locals being broadly receptive to conservation, conflicts arise from governance shortcomings. Local communities acknowledged their role in the conflict through overgrazing, wildfires, encroachment, vandalism, and harvesting while raising issues from park authorities around equitable benefit-sharing, exclusion from conservation initiatives, livestock- and crop-losses caused by wildlife, and restricted human movement. These results suggest that the success of this biosphere reserve hinges on a willingness to grapple with complex issues of politics and governance while recognizing the diversity of different resource users.