Satsa and Peace Parks Foundation recently launched the Tourism Conservation Fund, an initiative to encourage and support large-scale and long-term projects that deliver durable socio-economic benefits to rural communities surrounding South Africa’s protected areas.
Paul Zille has been appointed CEO and will take up the position from January 1. He currently works as an independent consultant and runs a diverse economics and development advisory practice.
His current work is rooted in the use of concessionary finance to unlock opportunities, incentivise investment and leverage sustainable development. Zille is no stranger to the tourism and conservation sectors and has diverse experience in the design and management of development funds, programmes and incentives across a number of sectors, including tourism and conservation.
His plans include meeting key players across the tourism and conservation value chain to learn about and explore existing initiatives and ideas from the industry, and to introduce his vision for the fund.
Zille emphasises that his vision needs to be informed by ideas and experience on the ground, but he wants to use the fund to catalyse co-investment and activity by private-sector tourism players in business models that combine profitability with high social impact. Generically, this refers to ‘inclusive business’ or ‘shared value’ approaches that enterprises, both large and small, can adopt in meeting their commercial goals and in fulfilling their obligations to their shareholders.
The ultimate aim of any initiatives pursued by the fund will be to incentivise and leverage partnerships based on good ideas that combine commercial objectives with demonstrable social and conservation impact and, in this way, maximise the tourism industry’s socio-economic relevance and sustainability. “If something is profitable, it will be sustainable… We will be looking for innovative ideas that are rooted in community-public-private partnerships, are ready to be implemented and have a clear vision of long-term impact and sustainability – without the need for ongoing funding support.”
