Every few months, another headline declares that South Africa’s parks are starving for resources. Government is underfunding and the private sector is filling the void.
The story is told as if private funding is a temporary patch until the state catches up. It is not. Even with perfect budget allocation, full tourism recovery and zero mismanagement, the funding gap would still exist. Private funding is a permanent structural component of any viable conservation model in 21st century Africa.
Let’s start with the numbers. SANParks generated R4.1 billion (US$252 million) in 2024/25 with 75% from tourism. Pre-COVID, government funding was less than 20% of its operational budget. The agency that runs Kruger and Table Mountain is not a charity case. It is one of the most commercially successful conservation bodies in the world.
The provincial picture is different. Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) operates on a R1 billion (US$61,5 million) budget. Only 40% comes from tourism. The rest is a provincial government grant. When that grant is cut, there is no commercial buffer.
Staff on the ground state it plainly: “The main problem is that fiscus funding is not enough. The costs of everything have doubled.” Other revenue streams have collapsed too. “Rhino translocations used to bring a lot of funding but have collapsed due to poaching. Foot and mouth has also massively affected income from game sales.”
The cost of conservation has outpaced the budget. Per hectare, the US National Park Service spends US$97. SANParks spends US$55. And US parks are dealing with hiking trails and bears. SANParks is fighting a militarised, transnational poaching war while running a large-scale tourism business.
Park budgets covered a fence and a few rangers 20 years ago. Today, effective conservation requires helicopter time, K9 units, GPS collaring, drone surveillance, intelligence operations and vet response. Tourism revenue has grown. But conservation costs have grown faster. And tourism revenue is volatile. When the gates close, rhinos are still poached and rangers still need to be paid.
The proof of public-private collaboration success is in the field: 352 rhinos were poached in South Africa in 2025 with 266 on state properties. Hluhluwe-iMfolozi, once the crisis epicentre, saw losses drop from 198 in 2024 to 63 in 2025, credited to collaboration with WWF South Africa, African Wildlife Vets, Wild Wonderful World, Save the Rhino International and Wildlife ACT. Meanwhile, Kruger’s losses jumped from 88 to 175. Same country, same year, two opposite trajectories. The difference was integration of state, NGO and private funding or the absence of it.
The question is not whether private funding exists. It does and always will. The question is whether we build the architecture to make all of it count before the people doing the work run out of road.
In a time when we can’t be sure our vote is going to cut it, true power lies in where you spend your rand. Stewardship of our shared natural resources is a shared, global responsibility, which does not stop at any border.
Can you imagine what this would look like if everyone’s efforts were coordinated? It is time to stop passing blame for all the things that are broken, put egos aside and start working together to save our wild spaces before it is too late. The people doing the work are doing it anyway – on depleted budgets and goodwill that should not be taken for granted. The question for anyone who has read this far is not whether the problem is serious enough to act on. It is whether the rand you control will go further than the vote you cast.
Ours will.
Wild Wonderful World is hosting a prize draw to raise funds in support of Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife’s Rhino Guardianship Strategy. 100% of all ticket sales will pay directly for helicopter hours. More information at www.wildwonderfulworld.com/prizedraw.
