Drivers of change in human–wildlife relationships: Southern Africa as an example

Abstract

Human–wildlife relationships (HWRs) are changing globally in response to shifts in ecological dynamics and societal values, often resulting in contestation. With an increasing need to enable human–wildlife coexistence, it is essential to better understand the drivers of change in HWRs. Southern Africa provides a diversity of wildlife and perspectives, fragmented landscapes and intensifying anthropogenic pressures, exemplifying global complexities in HWRs and providing a useful case to explore this topic and provide pluralistic, place-based understandings of HWRs. Building on the ‘three interwoven dimensions of transformative change’, this synthesis develops a conceptual framework for understanding four drivers of change in HWRs: wildlife community dynamics, human structures, human views and human practices. This framework is applied to nine illustrative cases from rural Southern Africa and Cape Town's urban-marine interface to explore how novel disease outbreaks, novel predation, governance reforms, media narratives, alternative wildlife products and militarised conservation shape how humans perceive, value and interact with wildlife. The nine cases presented support the four proposed drivers of change in HWRs (wildlife community dynamics, human structures, human views and human practices) and reveal shifts in the instrumental, relational and intrinsic values of wildlife. In some cases, HWRs change through a reduction in instrumental value: rabies-induced aggression in Cape fur seals (Arctocephalus pusillus), the departure of white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) due to killer whale (Orcinus orca) predation, the use of faux leopard (Panthera pardus) fur and the ban of hunting in Botswana. In other cases, HWRs change through the enhancement of relational values: the emotional resonance of the documentary My Octopus Teacher, the incident of Cecil the lion and policies allowing wildlife ownership on private land. The framework proposed in the paper offers a tool for anticipating and navigating change in HWRs and demonstrates the need for context-sensitive interventions that account for emotional, symbolic and institutional dimensions of HWRs. The paper highlights the need for better understanding the diversity, dynamics and drivers of change in HWRs to achieve more inclusive and adaptive decision-making, communication, engagement and conflict resolution to enable human–wildlife coexistence, particularly in contested spaces. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.