South Africa wildlife vacations guide

National Parks & conservation in South Africa
The transformation of reserves into protected national parks began after the National Parks Act in 1926 which set up the South African National Parks organisation, SANParks. It is still the leading conservation body in South Africa, although it is only over the last few decades that the safari shifted into the form we recognise today. There is a greater feeling of getting back to nature, more involvement of local communities through private-public partnerships, and much more understanding of the fact that there can’t be conservation without community engagement. This has also brought about more and more conservancies in South Africa, with community-owned and managed camps, using local guides where possible and with income going directly to local people. This progressive approach to conservation is what has facilitated South Africa’s huge growth in wildlife tourism, with over 3 million hectares of land protected in 19 national parks alone.

Is growth a good thing?
High profile travel and wildlife documentaries, award winning films such as Born Free, Out of Africa and even some Disney influences, as well as the improved quality of infrastructure and accommodation on offer, have all contributed to a huge growth in wildlife tourism. However, this comes with both positive and negative impacts. Kruger can become overcrowded, not just with humans but also by the animals they are coming to see. In 2016, there was controversy over whether a cull, now illegal in the Kruger as part of SANParks’ management plans, was going to be necessary as elephant and hippo populations soared, and both water and plant life was being depleted. In the past, hunting and human intervention had kept down numbers. And so this controversy continues, ironically on a continent where the wildlife populations of other countries are in rapid decline. Such as in neighbouring Mozambique, where the savannah elephant population declined 53 percent between 2010-15.*

Wildlife that is not so wild
One of the other negative developments of increased wildlife tourism is the mis-selling of wildlife vacations, with unethical businesses trying to make a quick rand by calling their experiences conservation based, when they are far from it. There is a demand for activities such as cuddling lion cubs, or walking with lions. You can even walk with tigers in South Africa, and they aren’t indigenous to the country. The worst thing about many of these organisations is that they are run by so called ‘conservationists’ who are actually breeding animals for trophy hunting purposes, a ghastly practice known as canned hunting. You can read more about our views on that on our blood lions activism page, but in short, increased wildlife tourism means people will try anything to make money out of it. So, buyer beware and all that.

Technology
You only have to watch a recent David Attenborough documentary to know that the technological advances made in wildlife watching have been phenomenal over the last few years. Not only can we track animals more easily, but we can volunteer on programmes where help is always needed in this domain – such as tracking primates released back into the wild after being rehabilitated in sanctuaries in South Africa. This also means that we can be more responsible with our wildlife watching, and not have to put out meat as ‘photo bait’, for example, because we can tell where animals are residing more easily now, with the use of GPS and other tracking devices.

Wildlife conservation vacations
Volunteering vacations are a huge growth area in tourism, and South Africa is no exception when it comes to volunteering on important wildlife projects. Another development in this area is a greater understanding of what makes a volunteering vacation responsible, and at Responsible Travel we value trips that make a genuine contribution to ongoing conservation projects, rather than a quick ‘feel good’ fix. You can read more about what we believe goes into making a responsible wildlife volunteering trip in our wildlife conservation vacations guide.

*Source: National Geographic