Policy action is needed because most wildlife habitat is state owned or controlled, thus severely limiting opportunities for wildlife enterprise and entrepreneurship.
Across the planet, governments own vast tracks of terrestrial and marine areas – forests, savannahs, wetlands, mountains, coastal areas, and marine exclusive economic zones. These include state-owned forests, legally protected areas, and trust lands. In Canada, for example, 89% of land is owned by the government, in the US it is 28%, and in some countries like Ethiopia and Tanzania it is 100%.
Most wild species are also de jure or de facto state owned. In Canada and the USA, this is known as the public trust doctrine which places ownership of wild species in the hands of the state to be managed for public benefit. In Kenya, the Kenya Wildlife Service has de facto control over all wildlife. With wild species very much under government control, it is challenging at best for private enterprise and entrepreneurship to use these resources to effectively and efficiently. In some cases, however, such as in South Africa or the UK, landowners have some use rights to wild species albeit with ongoing state interference.
Internationally, there is also much stronger focus on stopping illegal wildlife trade rather than on enabling legal wildlife trade. For example, the World Bank’s Global Wildlife Program was “created to combat wildlife poaching, trafficking, and demand.” The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) is commonly seen as a mechanism for banning wildlife trade. There is also an EU action plan against wildlife trafficking, and the UK taxpayer finances an Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund.
In short, today we have widespread state ownership and control of wild species and their habitats, restrictive laws and regulations regarding the use of wild species, and high-profile global initiatives to stop wildlife trade and reduce the demand for wildlife products. Market-based, entrepreneurial approaches to wildlife management are rarely considered as an option for conservation.
To generate wildlife returns – both ecological returns and economic returns – these barriers need to be tackled by devolving wildlife use rights to landowners. liberalising trade in wildlife products, and reforming policies and regulations to support wildlife entrepreneurship.
Wildlife Returns aims to address these barriers through its support for wildlife enterprise and entrepreneurship. This support includes collaborative learning, thought leadership, and impactful partnerships.