Informing a conservation policy-praxis disjuncture A ‘commons’ perspective to tackling coastal-marine community-conserved area implementation in South Africa

Conventional ‘people-free’ conservation often fails to deliver both social and ecological outcomes. Community-based conservation (CBC) – which is underpinned by local community participation, knowledge and priorities – offers a viable alternative in certain contexts. We explore the applicability of established ‘commons’ design principles, and factors enabling community-based conservation, to community-based coastal and marine conservation initiatives in South Africa. An extensive review of relevant South African literature, complemented by interviews conducted with diverse conservation actors, operating within wildlife, forestry and coastal and marine contexts in the country, identified common social and institutional ‘constraints’ and ‘enablers’ that affected these conservation initiatives. Key constraints include slow and complex institutional processes (particularly associated with land restitution in protected areas), a lack of political will and limited local community participation in planning and decision-making, all of which affect required collaboration. Key enablers include greater understanding and alignment of initiatives with social and ecological contexts and priorities, formalized and improved community participation, and increased partner support, as well as the presence of local champions to inform, motivate, and facilitate the implementation and management of CBC initiatives. While the objective is to provide an updated list of ‘enablers’ informing the South African coastal and marine CBC context, insights gained should be relevant to other national sectors, as well as regional and global conservation actors attempting to translate ‘people-centred’ conservation policies into practice, particularly those fulfilling obligations to the Convention on Biological Diversity's Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.