SANParks is working on Vision 2040
By Nomazulu Moyo
SANParks is rewriting the rules of conservation. Its new Vision 2040 strategy, unveiled last year and now in motion, aims to turn South Africa’s national parks into “Mega Living Landscapes” that place people, not fences, at the centre.
At the Vision 2040 Indaba, which was held between 3 and 5 September 2025 in Gqeberha, SANParks Board Chairperson Pam Yako was blunt: “We have adopted a vision that fundamentally changes the conservation trajectory, if not turns it on its head.”
From exclusion to inclusion
For decades, national parks were managed as isolated sanctuaries of nature. Communities living on their edges often saw them as barriers to land and livelihoods. Vision 2040 flips that model, stressing integration, inclusion and economic empowerment.
“Vision 2040 is about repurposing the role of conservation,” Yako said. “It is about safeguarding ecosystems while ensuring that communities, especially those historically excluded, are recognised and benefit directly.”
SANParks has prioritised four regions for transformation: Greater Addo, Greater Grasslands, Greater Kruger, and Namaqualand. Each will link biodiversity with tourism, regenerative agriculture, and new local enterprises.
Rangers as frontline heroes
Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment, Dr Dion George, emphasised that the new model cannot work without the rangers who risk their lives daily.
“They are guardians of life, defending species against organised crime networks, poachers and traffickers,” he said. New investments in drone surveillance, GPS tracking and ranger training have already strengthened enforcement.
George singled out the Rhino Renaissance Campaign as a flagship. It brings together SANParks, NGOs, and local communities to fight poaching while creating green jobs. Ninety young rhino monitors are being trained annually, combining ancestral tracking skills with modern technology.
“This campaign is not only about protecting rhinos,” George said. “It is about community empowerment, green jobs, and inclusive conservation.”
Global stage: G20 and beyond
Vision 2040 is not only domestic. Under South Africa’s G20 Presidency, SANParks is using the platform to project its model globally. The revised National Biodiversity Economy Strategy is forecast to unlock 397,000 jobs and inject R127 billion into the economy by 2036.
International agencies — from the UN Environment Programme to the Global Environment Facility — are watching closely. “We are demonstrating that conservation is not a luxury but a necessity for prosperity, social equity and resilience,” George said.
Conservation as development
From the launch of the Kgodumodumo Dinosaur Interpretation Centre in the Free State to plans for regenerative tourism in Addo and Namaqualand, SANParks is reframing conservation as a development strategy.
“The Greater Addo region is a landscape of contrasts,” Yako told delegates. “Elephants roaming valleys, rivers winding past citrus orchards, dunes meeting the ocean. It is also a place where people live, farm and dream. Vision 2040 ensures they are part of the story, not excluded from it.”
The political challenge
However, the new approach faces complex tests: poverty, land pressure, and illicit wildlife trafficking. Poaching syndicates still generate millions for criminal networks. Communities still struggle with unemployment and a lack of basic services.
For SANParks, the challenge is whether Vision 2040 can deliver quick, visible benefits that build trust. Yako acknowledged the scale of ambition: “Yes, it does scare us. But if your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough.”
The community voice: land, dignity and restitution
For traditional leaders, Vision 2040 cannot succeed without reckoning with the long history of dispossession that shaped South Africa’s conservation estate.
Nkosi Mpumalanga Gwadiso, Spiritual and Cultural Chairperson of the Provincial House of Traditional and Khoisan Leaders, reminded delegates that indigenous systems of stewardship long predated formal conservation. “Traditional communities developed complex cultural and spiritual relationships with wildlife. Hunting was regulated, rituals ensured balance, and land was managed in ways that protected resources from over-exploitation,” he said.
The arrival of settlers, he argued, disrupted this system through war, land grabs and laws such as the 1913 Native Land Act. Families who once held custodianship over wildlife were displaced, later forced into cheap labour on the very game farms they once owned. “That dispossession created the racial and economic inequalities we still live with today,” Gwadiso said.
For him, the transformation of the wildlife sector cannot be about token representation. It requires land restitution, investment in rural education, and the development of meaningful career paths for young people in conservation, veterinary science, and tourism. “Vision 2040 must ensure full capacitation and training of rural children, preparing them to lead from the front and not just near opportunities,” he said.
Gwadiso also stressed that national parks must become engines of rural socio-economic development. “Why can’t we use our national parks to capitalise on rural development? That’s the sweet spot — harmony between nature and people. Alongside white-owned land, we must see businesses and enterprises in historically disadvantaged areas.”
The call from traditional leaders is clear: Vision 2040 will only restore dignity if it restores people to the land, creates generational wealth, and recognises indigenous knowledge as the foundation — not the afterthought — of conservation.
The verdict
Vision 2040 is being billed as the most radical overhaul of South Africa’s conservation model since democracy. If successful, it could become a global template for linking biodiversity with livelihoods.
If it fails, critics will say it promised too much and delivered too little.
For now, the message from Gqeberha is bold: conservation is no longer about fences and restrictions. It is about people, prosperity and survival — for both nature and society.
