Beyond the Big Five and Birds: Divergent ecotourism perspectives in rapidly changing Africa

Ecotourism has increasingly been recognized as an important source of revenue for protected areas as well as their surrounding communities (Hausmann et al., 2016; Eyster, Naidoo, & Chan, 2022; Gupta et al., 2023). Particularly in southern and eastern Africa, ecotourism is linked with charismatic species - the Big Five-, i.e., African elephant (Loxodonta africana), rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis, Ceratotherius simum), lion (Panthera leo), African buffalo (Syncerus caffer), and leopard (Panthera pardus). In ‘Not just the Big Five: African ecotourists prefer parks brimming with bird diversity’, Eyster, Naidoo, & Chan (2022) show how ecotourists also value birdwatching and viewing other wildlife. Ecotourism-based initiatives founded on local cultures can also be found (Hausmann et al., 2016). This recent research shows that reigning conservation interventions such as reintroducing Big Five species, which drain scarce budgets, may be directed to other attractions -birds, culture-, more effectively in the long run (Mbaiwa, 2015). This has significant implications for biodiversity conservation and how tourism may benefit local economies in sub-Saharan Africa (Mbaiwa, 2015; Gupta et al., 2023).

Eyster, Naidoo, & Chan (2022) explicitly mention their focus on southern Africa and East Africa (SSE), a regional perspective that is very common (Bauer et al., 2020). The authors' choice of ‘Big Five alternatives’ – giraffe (Giraffa spp.), cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus), wild dog (Lycaon pictus), birds – is limited to savannas species, thereby neglecting African forest species, such as mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei) and chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes), the backbone of a flourishing ecotourism industry in Rwanda, Uganda and beyond (Sabuhoro et al., 2017). This also holds for burgeoning ecotourism targeting lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla) (Cameroon, Central African Republic, Gabon) and Ethiopian mountain endemics such as walia ibex (Capra walie) and mountain nyala (Tragelaphus buxtoni).

COVID-19 was a wake-up call, demonstrating too much reliance on ecotourism in Africa and beyond, a lesson all too easy to forget (Gupta et al., 2023). Much less known have been the consequences of a degrading security situation in West-Central-Horn (WCH) of Africa over the recent decade (Bauer et al., 2020). The WCH part of the annual ecotourism visit map that Eyster, Naidoo, & Chan (2022) present has turned since 2007, with the exception of the western coastal parts, completely red or orange, i.e. (formally) advising against travel, invalidating, amongst other things, travel insurance policies (Figure 1). In WCH Africa, once flourishing ecotourism sites such as Waza National Park (Cameroon) have collapsed, with only trophy hunting keeping up in the region (Scholte, 2021; Scholte et al., 2022).

Sub-Saharan Africa's human population is expected to triple, from roughly 1 billion in 2017 to 3 billion people by 2100 (Vollset et al., 2020). When Eyster, Naidoo, & Chan (2022) suggest widening the scope of ecotourism, they seem to refer to international tourism, not considering the still undeveloped domestic and intra-Africa tourism that, triggered by demographic changes, is expected to increase dramatically (Stone & Nyaupane, 2019). One can only speculate as to the consequence of these changes on ecotourism. The few studies on African domestic tourism suggest that ‘culture, livelihoods, and crowded spaces, with a variety of activities, influence domestic tourists’ gaze, whereas privacy, tranquility, and quietness influence the international tourists' gaze’ (Stone & Nyaupane, 2019). Ecotourism targeting the diaspora market, with, for example, over a million visitors to Ethiopia in 2022 alone, has received even less attention, and one wonders what its ‘ecotourism gaze’ may look like.

Ecotourism in Africa, based on international and increasingly domestic visitors, is expected to continue playing an important role for protected areas and the neighboring communities (Hausmann et al., 2016; Sabuhoro et al., 2017; Eyster, Naidoo, & Chan, 2022; Gupta et al., 2023). Taking into account regional perspectives and the rapid changes, including security and demographic, that many regions in the sub-Saharan Africa undergo, allows research and practice to cater for how ecotourism in this part of the world may develop over the decades to come.