Change begets change Employing a change perspective to inform South Africa’s coastal community conservation policy-praxis disjuncture

Contemporary biodiversity conservation is ‘wickedly complex’ since it must address the diverse objectives of protecting biodiversity and enhancing social wellbeing. Consequently, more holistic, participatory, and context-specific conservation governance approaches are required. Notwithstanding mixed results, global reviews conclude that Community-Based Conservation (CBC) – which seeks to include local community participation, knowledge and priorities – is often more effective at producing positive social and ecological outcomes than conventional ‘top-down’ approaches that exclude people from decision-making.
Whilst South Africa possesses enabling legislation, to date legally recognized community-conserved areas (CCAs) have not been implemented in the coastal zone. Accordingly, this research aimed to better understand this ‘policy-praxis disjuncture’. It proposed greater understanding and potentially success could be gained by viewing CCA implementation and governance as a ‘change process’. Drawing on Commons Theory, Governance Theory, and the Theory of Change approach, a generic framework was developed that explored the factors, conditions and processes that enable the shift to a community-based mode of conservation governance. Thereafter, case study investigations were conducted in two established African coastal CCAs, and one South African ‘case-in-progress’. Findings of these cases, and the perceptions of diverse South African conservation actors, offered insights into tackling the aforementioned policy-praxis disjuncture, and culminated in developing a South African Empirical Community-Based Conservation Theory of Change Pathway. This served to make recommendations for improved planning, implementation and governance of coastal CCAs in the country. However, these recommendations should be useful to other global CBC initiatives facing similar challenges translating ‘people-centred’ conservation policy into practice.