The influence of biophysical and socio-economic factors on the effectiveness of private land conservation areas in preventing natural land cover loss across South Africa

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dc.contributor.authorShumba, Tafadzwaen_ZA
dc.contributor.authorDe Vos, Altaen_Za
dc.contributor.authorBiggs, Reinette, 1979-en_ZA
dc.contributor.authorEsler, Karen J.en_ZA
dc.contributor.authorClements, Hayley S.en_ZA
dc.date.accessioned2023-04-17T12:08:32Z
dc.date.available2023-04-17T12:08:32Z
dc.date.issued2021-06-09
dc.descriptionCITATION: Shumba, T. et al. 2021. The influence of biophysical and socio-economic factors on the effectiveness of private land conservation areas in preventing natural land cover loss across South Africa, Global Ecology and Conservation 28(2021):12 pages. doi.10.1016/j.gecco.2021.e01670en_ZA
dc.descriptionThe original publication is available at: sciencedirect.comen_ZA
dc.description.abstractThere is increasing interest in the potential of private land conservation areas (PLCAs) as a complementary biodiversity conservation strategy to state-owned protected areas. However, there is limited understanding of how the diverse social-ecological contexts of PLCAs influence their effectiveness in conserving biodiversity. Here, we investigated how the effectiveness of South African PLCAs in conserving biodiversity varied across social-ecological contexts, using natural land cover as a proxy. Social-ecological contexts were represented by biophysical and legal factors (distance to towns and roads, elevation, slope, terrain ruggedness, rainfall, PLCA size, distance to state-owned national parks, and presence of legal protection) and, for a subset of commercially-operated PLCAs, management factors (adopted business model, and profitability). Biophysical and legal contextual factors had low explanatory power in the best model for the nationwide analysis (n = 5121 PLCAs). For a subset of PLCAs (n = 72) we found that effectiveness depended on the strategy they adopted to generate an income, as opposed to the amount of income itself. PLCAs that attracted high volumes of visitors to small properties to view charismatic “Big 5” wildlife were less effective in conserving natural land cover than larger, more exclusive “Big 5” PLCAs and those focused on hunting. Overall, site-specific management factors were better at explaining the effectiveness of PLCAs than biophysical factors. Our findings indicate that conservation practitioners and policy makers need to recognise the diverse goals, motivations and management models of PLCAs when considering how to support them in conserving biodiversity. Future studies could explore whether these trends hold for other proxies of biodiversity conservation, beyond land cover change.en_ZA
dc.description.versionPublisher’s versionen_ZA
dc.format.extent12 pages : illustrations, mapsen_ZA
dc.identifier.citationShumba, T. et al. 2021. The influence of biophysical and socio-economic factors on the effectiveness of private land conservation areas in preventing natural land cover loss across South Africa, Global Ecology and Conservation 28(2021):12 pages. doi.10.1016/j.gecco.2021.e01670en_ZA
dc.identifier.issn2351-9894 (online)en_ZA
dc.identifier.otherdoi.10.1016/j.gecco.2021.e01670en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/126788
dc.language.isoen_ZAen_ZA
dc.publisherElsevier B.V.en_ZA
dc.rights.holderAuthors retain copyrighten_ZA
dc.subjectBiodiversity conservation -- Africa, Southernen_ZA
dc.subjectEcotourism -- Africa, Southernen_ZA
dc.subjectHuntingen_ZA
dc.subjectManagement strategiesen_ZA
dc.subjectNatural land cover changeen_ZA
dc.subjectProtected areas -- South Africa -- Managementen_ZA
dc.subjectSocial-ecologicalen_ZA
dc.subjectPrivate land conservation areasen_ZA
dc.titleThe influence of biophysical and socio-economic factors on the effectiveness of private land conservation areas in preventing natural land cover loss across South Africaen_ZA
dc.typeArticleen_ZA
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