This SAWMA 2026 reflection looks back on the Southern African Wildlife Management Association annual conference, held from 31 August to 4 September at Cradle Moon Lakeside Game Lodge in Gauteng. The theme, “Beyond Numbers,” asked a pointed question: once we look past population counts, what are we actually managing wildlife for?

Key takeaways from SAWMA 2026

  • Population counts alone cannot explain wildlife embedded in ecological, social, cultural and economic landscapes.
  • Africa’s informal wild meat value chain is dual: a communal channel governed by customary rules and CBNRM, and a private channel built on ranching and concessions.
  • Communal systems score net-negative across stages, with harvesting the clearest hotspot; private systems score better socially and economically but stay environmentally mixed.
  • The core tension: arrangements that keep wild meat accessible can erode the resource base, while the more sustainable arrangements risk excluding those who need the protein and income most.

The venue: Cradle Moon and private land conservation

The conference's venue was symbolic and spoke directly to my study. Cradle Moon Lakeside Game Lodge, formerly known as Heia Safari Lodge, is set beneath the Zwartkop Mountain on the urban edge of Johannesburg. The conservancy belongs to a group of landowners who have removed fences between their properties, followed by the introduction of various wildlife. This demonstrates the dynamics of private land and wildlife ownership in the production landscape. The game lodge is characterised by a diversity of tourist attractions, including wildlife such as giraffes, wildebeest, and zebras, as well as the dam wall on the Crocodile River.

“Beyond Numbers”: why population counts are not enough

The theme presented a clear-cut challenge. While wildlife population counts and growth rates remain significant, they are not holistic, as they offer only a partial lens for understanding wildlife entrenched in complex ecological, social, cultural and economic landscapes. The conference, therefore, pushed participants to confront plural values, genetic and demographic resilience in fragmented landscapes, and the practical difficulties of managing species in human-dominated and mixed-use systems.

Presenting on Africa’s wild meat value chains

I presented the preliminary results of my first PhD paper, “Sustainability at the Crossroads: Integrating Social, Environmental, and Economic Dimensions in Africa’s Wild Meat Value Chains,” under the sub-theme of the multiple values of wildlife. The work maps the structure of the informal wild meat value chain and then scores practices at each stage as either adding to or subtracting from sustainability. The central finding is that the chain is dual. One channel is communal, governed largely by customary rules and community-based natural resource management (CBNRM). The other is private, built on ranching and concessions. Communal systems emerge as net-negative across stages, with harvesting the clearest hotspot: weak rights, non-selective methods and livelihood pressure coincide. Private systems score positively on social and economic dimensions yet remain environmentally mixed; high capital costs also exclude many producers. These results do not simply describe two parallel markets. They reveal a deeper structural tension: the very arrangements that keep wild meat accessible to rural households can undermine the resource base, while the arrangements that deliver better sustainability scores risk excluding the people who most need the protein and income.

Talks and conversations at SAWMA 2026

Apart from the presentation, I enjoyed talks by leading scholars in the field of wildlife management. One of them was Mr Vincent Carruthers, who authored pioneering papers on game ranching in South Africa. I also took time to probe for insights on the practicality of the sustainability issues identified in the literature. Writing this SAWMA 2026 reflection, the strongest impression is how insightful the week was, and how valuable it proved to connect with people working across the industry.

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to my supervisors, Dr Wiseman Ndlovu, Dr Melissa van der Merwe, and Prof Francis Vorhies, for their guidance and financial support in attending the conference. Special thanks go to Prof Andrea Jooste, the HOD for Agricultural Economics, for covering my flight tickets.