African wildlife conservation has been transformed, shifting from a traditional, state-managed
government approach to a broader governance approach with a wide range of actors designing and
implementing wildlife policy. The most widely popularized approach has been that of community managed
nature conservancies. The knowledge of how institutions function in relation to humans
and their use of the environment is critical to the design and implementation of effective conservation.

Pro-environmental behavior is the willingness to cooperate and contribute to environmental public goods. A good understanding of why individuals undertake pro-environmental actions is important in order to construct policies that are aligned with preferences and actual behavioral patterns, such as concern for social esteem and reputation.

Zimbabwe’s community-based conservation model, which brings together peasant farmers in a tourism-focused approach to wildlife management, has not reduced the community’s poaching pressure on wildlife stocks in the protected area of Gonarezhou National Park (GNP) as much as intended.

The Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve is a 100 km long coastal stretch of towering mountains and craggy beaches about an hour’s drive east of Cape Town. The dramatic landscape, rare botanical diversity and ocean ‘playground’ are big drawcards for tourists, and contribute to property values. A recent study of the ‘amenity’ value of this stretch of coastline shows that many local visitors regard it as more desirable to visit than other stretches of South African coastline, and many are return visitors. Homeowners are willing to pay a premium for properties with sea views or access.

When designing schemes such as conditional cash transfers or payments for ecosystem services, the choice of whom to select and whom to exclude is critical. We incentivize and measure actual contributions to an environmental public good to ascertain whether being excluded from a rebate can affect contributions and, if so, whether the rationale for exclusion influences such effects. Treatments, i.e., three rules that determine who is selected and excluded, are randomly assigned.

This paper uses a bioeconomic model to analyse wildlife conservation in two habitats adjacent to a national park by two types of communities in the context of Southern Africa. One community is made up of peasant farmers operating under a benefit-sharing scheme (CAMPFIRE) while the other is made up of commercial farmers practising game farming in a conservancy (the Save Valley Conservancy). Both communities exploit wildlife by selling hunting licenses to foreign hunters but with different levels of success.

This study used a sample of 336 households and community-level data from 30 communities around Gonarezhou National Park in Zimbabwe to analyse the association between institutions and cooperation (defined as the ability to self-organise) and the relationship between cooperation and success of biodiversity outcomes.