African Wildlife Economy Institute - AWEI

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African Wildlife Economy Institute - AWEI

Thought leadership, stakeholder engagement, & professional development for Africa's wildlife economy

The African Wildlife Economy Institute (AWEI) is a leading academic think tank in Africa for impactful research, engagement, and teaching on wildlife economies. Institutionally, AWEI is an academic unit within the Faculty of AgriSciences of Stellenbosch University. It conducts and facilitates research and studies, disseminates knowledge and information, and organises and participates in events to

promote the wildlife economy in Africa. For more information, please visit the AWEI website: https://www0.sun.ac.za/awei/

09/09/2026

The Namib gets almost no rain. Temperatures swing to extremes. And yet a thorny creeper called the !Nara has fruited along its Atlantic coastline for millennia, harvested by the Topnaar people.

Namib Desert Oils turns that plant, along with marula, mongongo, and Kalahari melon, into cosmetic oils sold to beauty houses in Europe, China, and North America.

A few things that stand out:

🌱 40 hectares of jojoba plantations in the Erongo Region, worked by 1,500 local women
🌱 Mongongo protein powder feeding more than 400 schoolchildren through a World Food Programme partnership
🌱 FairWild certification achieved in 2024, plus Ecocert organic certification for three of its oils

Mongongo oil, incidentally, has the highest vitamin E content of any oil, and contains a compound that forms a protective film when exposed to UV light.

Naomi June looks at how one company built a supply chain where conservation and community income support each other.

https://buff.ly/Z4rxgXq

04/09/2026

If you missed the webinar on Human-Wildlife Interactions, Risks and Scaling of Game Meat Value Chains hosted by the Academy of Science of South Africa and AWEI on 6 August, you can find the recordings and presentations here: https://wildlifeeconomy.info/events/2026-08/human-wildlife-interactions-risks-and-scaling-game-meat-value-chains

01/09/2026

SAWMA 2026 is underway at Cradle Moon Lakeside Game Lodge in Lanseria, and this year's theme poses the question: what are we actually managing wildlife for?

Two AWEI researchers presented at the conference this week.

Kumbirai Takawira, AWEI Research Associate and PhD candidate, shared his research on sustainability in Africa's wild meat value chains, and how social, environmental, and economic dimensions can be assessed together rather than separately.

Dr Michael 't Sas-Rolfes, AWEI Research Fellow, presented on reconciling conservation values, using rhinos as a case study. Rhino policy is one of the clearest examples of what happens when people want very different things from the same species.

Read more about the conference here: https://buff.ly/YdxUN3x

28/08/2026

What did the 2026 SADC Summit mean for southern Africa's wildlife economy?

The communiqué from Durban ran to 38 points. Wildlife, conservation, and sustainable use did not feature in any of them.

There is still good news. The new SADC Tourism UNIVISA makes it easier for visitors to move between countries on multi-country safari circuits, especially across the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area. Work on cutting non-tariff barriers should lower the cost of permits and cross-border logistics.

But financing for transfrontier conservation areas, CITES positioning, and wildlife trade were left off the agenda entirely. Critical minerals development is moving ahead without land-use planning that accounts for conservation.

Supported indirectly, but institutionally invisible. Our new analysis unpacks what that means for the region.

https://wildlifeeconomy.info/article/sadc-wildlife-economy-2026-summit

14/08/2026

Does the law understand edible insects?
Find out in a fascinating webinar hosted by the University of Venda's Institute for Rural Development (IRD), in partnership with the African Wildlife Economy Institute.

24 & 25 August from 10:30 to 12:00

South Africa’s edible insect market has long sustained rural livelihoods and cultural practices, yet it remains informal, poorly understood, and largely absent from policy. Without reliable market data, progress toward formalisation has been slow.

This webinar will engage policymakers, and academics in policy dialogue to build on fieldwork findings from the project "Mapping South Africa's Edible Insect Markets and Trade Policy Imperatives" and advocate for streamlined regulations.

https://wildlifeeconomy.info/events/2026-08/does-law-understand-edible-insects

05/08/2026

What if Africa's wildlife did not depend on foreign aid to survive?

For decades, donors funded much of the continent's conservation work. The closure of USAID in February 2025 showed how quickly that support can disappear, leaving communities, private landowners, and NGOs responsible for wildlife but with far fewer resources.

A new AWEI article looks at another path. Building on the ideas of Ghanaian economist Dr George Ayittey, it asks what conservation might look like if local people were treated as rights-holders and custodians, free to benefit lawfully and sustainably from wildlife. The starting points are secure property rights, voluntary exchange, and the rule of law.

The article’s central point is worth sitting with: wildlife tends to flourish where people have a lasting reason to protect it and a fair share in its benefits.

Could this be a way forward for Africa? Have a read and share your thoughts.

https://wildlifeeconomy.info/articles/conservation-beyond-aid-george-ayitteys-classical-liberalism

24/07/2026

When a species is protected under CITES, we tend to assume trade will simply decline. But what actually happens next?

In a new article for AWEI, Ms Lydia Bhebe looks at a fascinating discussion from the CITES Animals Committee (AC34): biological science tells us which species may need protection, but not how a trade rule will play out once it hits real markets and communities.

The same restriction can work in one country and backfire in another. Sometimes demand shifts to another species. Sometimes trade moves into illegal channels. And often, the people closest to the trade (local harvesters, communities, resource users) are barely consulted. In one review, fewer than 2% of proposals involved Indigenous Peoples and local communities.

From rhinos and pangolins to southern Africa's succulents, the lesson is the same: conservation happens in human systems.

Give it a read and let us know what you think. Should conservation decisions weigh economics and community knowledge as much as biology?

https://wildlifeeconomy.info/article/wildlife-trade-policy-outcomes-cites

22/07/2026

What happens to a community when the mopane worms run out?

In Limpopo, mopane worms are far more than a rural delicacy. The trade helps families build homes, pay school fees, cover medical costs, and feed their children a vital source of protein. A single cup sells for around R50.

But traders and harvesters told our researchers the same story again and again: mopane worms are becoming harder to find. In some villages, they have all but vanished. The reasons range from overharvesting and weak enforcement of harvesting rules to the cutting down of mopane trees, the use of insecticides, and veld fires.

Our latest reflection piece, from a field visit with the University Of Venda Institute for Rural Development, asks what is really at stake: livelihoods, culture, food security, and knowledge built over generations.

Read it here: https://wildlifeeconomy.info/article/mopane-worms-livelihoods

20/07/2026

Who benefits from Africa's wildlife, and how? That was the focus when AWEI's Dr Wiseman Ndlovu chaired two panels at WTM Africa 2026 in Cape Town.

Conservation experts and community practitioners shared hard evidence and lived experience. Among the themes: treating communities as partners rather than labour, the economic power of living wildlife (one living shark near Gansbaai supports around 130 jobs and 2,000 dependants), and a calmer, evidence-based conversation about consumptive and non-consumptive tourism.

The discussion built on the new WTM Africa White Paper on tourism and the wildlife economy in Africa.

Read our full report here: https://wildlifeeconomy.info/article/tourism-wildlife-economy-wtm-africa-2026

International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) International Centre for Responsible Tourism (ICRT) South African National Parks Marine Dynamics Shark Tours Dyer Island Conservation Trust

15/07/2026

Few topics in conservation spark as much debate as the commercial use of wild species. It is usually framed as a simple choice: trade threatens wildlife, or trade protects it.

A new global study challenges that binary. Researchers examined 71 million legally traded reptile skins across 46 species and 20 years of trade data. The finding? Most traded species are not among the world's most threatened, and the majority of wild harvests are subject to formal management and monitoring.

The study does not claim that all wildlife trade is safe. It makes a more useful point. Whether wildlife use helps or harms depends on how well it is governed.

That question runs right through Africa's conservation debates, from crocodile ranching to community conservancies. Our latest article explains why evidence, not assumption, should guide the way forward.

Read it here: https://wildlifeeconomy.info/articles/sustainable-wildlife-use-reptile-skin-trade

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African Wildlife Economy Institute, Faculty Of AgriSciences, Stellenbosch University, Private Bag X1
Stellenbosch
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https://wildlifeeconomy.info/

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