Endangered Wildlife Trust

Clive Walker’s Tuli Block memoir a tribute to titans

Book Review

Clive Walker’s Tuli Block memoir a tribute to titans

By Eleanor Momberg

Clive Walker conservation legacy Tuli Block

It took almost 60 years to write a memoir about the extensive work Clive Walker did in the Tuli Block as a trail guide, conservationist and mentor.

Among the Titans of Tuli is a book which he says could not have been published 20 or 25 years ago. And, he is correct.

Clive, a founder of the Endangered Wildlife Trust, describes Among the Titans of Tuli as a memoir. His friend, fellow conservationist and former EWT CEO John Ledger described it as an autobiography. Either way, it is a remarkable study of the history of the area known for its elephants and varied biodiversity, the work done to ensure the area is conserved, and a call to action to ensure the species found in this wonderous part of southern Africa is saved for generations to come.

It is memoir in which Clive pays tribute to “all those titans whose efforts, both professionally and as land developers and conservationist, rangers and trail guides, have contributed to making the Tuli the iconic and marvelous place it remains, despite the many challenges confronting it”.

The opening chapters provide a fascinating insight into the events that saw the creation of the Tuli Block in the late 19^th century, the Rhodesian conflicts and the Anglo-Boer Wars, all which contributed to changes in the elephant populations in this area, noting that probably the first detailed report of the status of elephant between the Shashe and Limpopo Rivers in the Tuli was undertaken in 1973 by conservationist Jim Freely. In his report Freely had stated that changes in plant and animal life could be attributed to human activity.

Three years later, Clive, as Chair of the EWT Board, approached the Botswana government with an offer to assist with further research into the elephant situation in the Tuli to support the development of a sound management policy.

He writes that he “came with no demands but rather an offer to assist” and that he had provided the assurance that the EWT would fund the necessary recommendations.

“At least I hoped it would, because a number of my board felt my sympathies lay with the elephant who were certainly not endangered, whereas my true intentions were mainly about the habitat,” he said adding this led to the appointment of an EWT-funded botanist to study both elephant and their habitat. This project examined the dynamics and stability of the vegetation in relation to elephant use, making recommendations in regard to carrying capacity. At the time almost nothing was known about the population dynamics of trees that were elephant food, or about the influence of elephants on these dynamics, the book states, This was supported by aerial surveys conducted by the EWT and Educational Wildlife Expeditions, an organisation running wildlife trails in the area to determine how many elephants lived in the system.

Clive’s not only provides a glimpse into the lives of the people, and characters, of the Tuli, but also offers a glimpse into the adventures and experiences of those he led on the Ivory Trail. This includes a number of close encounters with elephant and lion.

Besides imparting detailed information about elephant behaviour, their habitat, and their role within that environment, the reader is given a glance at how the environment has changed, notably the decline of the riverine forest lining the banks of the Limpopo and other rivers within the system, the damage caused by inappropriate land use, uncontrolled water extractions, the impacts of climate change, and the damage caused to flora by elephant, giraffe and other species of wildlife.

The final chapters offer a sombre reminder of the challenges faced within the region, touching on the complexities and sensitivities around elephant management, the approval of developments in Limpopo that will impact ancient Baobab forests and water systems contributing to continued environmental damage, and the Greater Mapungubwe Transfrontier Conservation Area, incorporating parts of South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe which remains “a work in progress” 20 years after its proclamation.

Speaking at the launch of Among the Titans of Tuli, Clive said the Tuli “is a remarkable place and an area that I have a deep passion for”.

But, there are pressures there. “The water extraction is one of probably the most serious factors and if we were to lose most of that riverine it would be tragic, because the only other area comparable to this is the Pafuri region (of the Kruger National Park),” he says in reference to the loss of habitat for the Pel’s Fishing Owl.

John Ledger pointed to the legacy created by Clive who had started the EWT in 1973 with James Clarke and Neville Anderson.

“Clive has left a really significant footprint and this book is one of the most significant because it is an autobiography – he calls it a memoir – but it documents 60 years of his involvement up in that wonderful corner of the world, the Thuli where the Limpopo, the Sashe and Motloutse Rivers come together, said John.

“What I really liked about the book is the way that Clive has woven the history of the area and the different characters that live in Thuli – the farmers, the poachers, and shares his great love of his game scouts that worked on the trails with him. It is all woven into the book,” he added.

Clive and John pointed out that had the Dongola nature reserve, a transfrontier conservation initiative around the confluence of the Limpopo and Shashe rivers and initiated by General Jan Smuts in the 1940s not been deproclaimed by Hendrik Verwoerd to settle farmers along the river, it would have been an “incredible transfrontier park of note.”

But, as Clive warns in the final chapter – the approaching storm is upon us.

“In a world of deepening self-interest and greed at the expense of everyone and everything else, (the conservation) community’s role in the protection of the nature world for tomorrow’s children has never been more critical,” Clive concludes.

Newsletter sign up

Rooted in resilience: Mud, muscle and making plans.

Tales From the Field

Rooted in resilience: Mud, muscle and making plans.

By Ludi Kern, field officer in the Savanna Strategic Conservation Landscape

Soutpansberg muddy conditions team

In the remote and rugged landscapes of the Soutpansberg, restoration work rarely follows a predictable plan.

For the Restoration Ranger team, the first quarter of the year has been defined by less than ideal conditions, but by the team’s ability to adapt, persevere, and continue delivering meaningful conservation outcomes under pressure.

From the outset, heavy January rains reshaped operational plans. Access to key sites became impossible, with swollen rivers cutting off routes to higher-lying properties. Rather than lose momentum, the team pivoted quickly, identifying lower-altitude areas where work could continue. Even reaching these sites required effort, with rangers undertaking minor road repairs before operations could begin. The same rains that blocked access, however, offered an unexpected advantage: softened soils made manual removal of invasive plants more effective. Through determination and adaptability, the team successfully cleared 391 invasive plants over just three weeks.

By February, the Rangers had returned to Andover Farm, resuming the critical task of removing invasive Eucalyptus along a strategically important river system. This river threads through multiple properties, including protected areas and future conservation zones before feeding into the Sand River, making its ecological integrity vital at a landscape scale.

But, conditions remained far from easy. Waterlogged soil, high river levels, and unstable terrain forced the team into constant problem-solving mode. Routes had to be reassessed, alternative access points identified, and on several occasions, vehicles recovered from difficult conditions. Road maintenance became an essential part of daily operations, ensuring both safety and continuity of work.

Despite these challenges, the team’s output was remarkable. Over the course of the month, 1,117 Eucalyptus trees were controlled using a combination of manual, mechanical and chemical methods. This effort represents more than just numbers; it is a significant step toward restoring the health of the riparian corridor. By removing these water-intensive invasive trees, the rangers are directly improving water availability, supporting indigenous biodiversity, and strengthening the resilience of the broader ecosystem.

March brought no reprieve from the rains. Persistent wet conditions continued to hinder access, culminating in an incident where the team’s vehicle became stuck in deep mud and required assistance from neighbouring landowners for recovery. Yet, even in these moments, the rangers’ resourcefulness stood out. To maintain safe passage between their accommodation and work sites, they constructed a temporary access route using cleared eucalyptus trees, turning the very problem they are addressing into part of the solution.

What emerges from these months isn’t just a record of numbers, though they’re impressive. It’s a portrait of a team that refuses to stall, even when their vehicles do.

The Restoration Rangers aren’t just clearing invasive trees; they’re navigating uncertainty, adapting in real time, and occasionally building roads out of the very challenges they’re tackling.

In a landscape as unpredictable as the Soutpansberg, progress isn’t about perfect conditions. It’s about muddy boots, quick thinking, and the quiet determination to keep moving no matter how deep things get.

eucalyptus clearing river system South Africa conservation

Newsletter sign up

A full circle moment for African wild dog conservation

Tales from the Field

A full circle moment for African wild dog conservation

By Eugene Greyling, field officer in the Carnivore Conservation Unit

African wild dog reintroduction South Africa Zimanga pack release

The recent reintroduction of a newly formed African Wild Dog pack into Zimanga Private Game Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal marked far more than another translocation. Coordinated by the Endangered Wildlife Trust through the Wild Dog Range Expansion Project, it represented the return of a species absent from this landscape for a decade, and a reminder of what long-term conservation collaboration can achieve.

What made this release especially meaningful was the story behind the pack itself. The females originated from a lineage tied directly to Zimanga’s past population. More than 10 years ago, their mother formed part of a group moved from this same landscape to Tswalu Kalahari Reserve. There, she and her sister went on to establish an exceptional legacy. Now, the next generation has returned that legacy to where it began.

These are the moments that quietly affirm why metapopulation management matters. Conservation is seldom linear, and successes are often measured over decades rather than days. To witness animals once removed for the sake of persistence now contributing to restoration elsewhere was a genuine full-circle moment.

This reintroduction would not have been possible without the commitment and support of Tswalu Kalahari Reserve, Zimanga Private Game Reserve, The Bateleurs, the Ivan Carter Wildlife Conservation Alliance, Wildlife ACT, and all those involved behind the scenes. Their collective effort once again demonstrates that African wild dog conservation depends on partnership as much as it does on science.

May this new pack go from strength to strength.

We need your support

Newsletter sign up

Signals from the Skies: What Injured Raptors Tell Us About Our Changing World

Science snippet

Signals from the Skies: What Injured Raptors Tell Us About Our Changing World

By Erin Adams and Lizanne Roxburgh, conservation planning science unit

raptor conservation threats urban expansion

As cities and infrastructure continue to expand, wildlife is increasingly affected by human activities. These impacts can be direct, such as deliberate persecution, or indirect, through the growth of energy networks and transport systems that leads to accidental mortalities on infrastructure. Understanding how and why animals are injured or killed is an essential step in improving conservation efforts.

One group particularly affected by human expansion is raptors. Raptors consist of birds of prey such as hawks, eagles, kites, harriers, vultures, falcons, and owls. Raptors play an important role in ecosystems because their presence reflects environmental health, and many species also provide valuable services, such as removing carcasses through scavenging. In a recent publication co-authored by EWT scientists*, researchers examined data from wildlife rehabilitation centres around the world to better understand the most common causes of raptor injury and death.

The researchers analysed just under 150,000 wildlife rehabilitation admissions recorded globally between 1989 and 2023. These records included 148 raptor species from multiple continents. For each admission, information was collected on the rehabilitation centre, species, age of the animal (adult, non-adult, or unknown), country and continent, and the year of admission.

Each admission was also classified by injury type (human-related, natural, or unknown) and by the specific cause of injury, where possible. Human-related causes included factors such as habitat destruction, poisoning, vehicle collisions, or contact with infrastructure. Natural causes included events like severe weather, disease, or falls from nests. The final outcome, or fate, of each bird was also recorded, including whether it was released back into the wild, died or was euthanised, remained in permanent care, or had an unknown outcome.

The scientists found that owls made up the largest proportion of admissions, accounting for just over 34% of all records, followed by falcons (24%) and Buteo hawks (22%). This pattern may reflect the ability of these groups to live in or near urban environments.

Overall, 41% of admissions were listed as having an unknown cause, while 39% were linked to human activities and 20% to natural causes. Among the human-related cases, the most frequent causes were unspecified trauma, vehicle collisions, and injuries related to electrical infrastructure or gas flaring.

In terms of outcomes, approximately 57% of admitted raptors died or were euthanised. Around 44% were successfully rehabilitated and released back into the wild, while just under 2% remained in permanent care.

This study highlights how vulnerable raptors are to the pressures associated with urban expansion. The high proportion of cases that do not result in release underscores the seriousness of these threats. As human development continues to grow, it is increasingly important to implement effective conservation strategies that reduce risks to raptors and promote safer shared landscapes for both people and wildlife.

* Panter, C. T., Bullock, H. E., Brown, M., Mori, D., & Thompson, L. J. (2026). Taking the pulse of the world’s raptors—A systematic quantitative review of wildlife rehabilitation centre admissions. Biological Conservation, 316, 111746. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2026.111746

Newsletter sign up

Multispecies Action Plan to conserve Bustards adopted for implementation

By Matt Pretorius, project manager in the Wildlife and Infrastructure Unit

bustard conservation action plan awareness campaign

A global team of bustard experts and conservationists have developed a Multispecies Action Plan to Conserve African, Eurasian, and Australian Bustards to conserve a terrestrial species that includes one of the world’s heaviest flying birds – the Kori Bustard.

The Bustard MsAP, as it is commonly known, was recently adopted at the 15^th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals in Brazil – less than a year after it was workshopped in Pakistan.

With the adoption of the blueprint, the real work now starts to conserve a species threatened with extinction.

The actions proposed in the Bustard MsAP will be executed within a period of 11 years (2026 – 2037). There are several key milestones, and a mid-term progress review is planned for 2031 – one year ahead of the 17^th Conference of the Parties – marking the halfway point of the Bustard MsAP’s implementation period.

Bustards Without Borders (BWB) conceptualised and developed the Bustard MsAP, with the primary mission of “catalysing actions for the sustainable conservation of bustards and their habitats, to include on-the-ground conservation activities, training, awareness, population monitoring and research as outlined in the Bustard MsAP”.

BWB is a consortium of individuals, organisations, government institutions and other stakeholders working towards sustainable bustard conservation.

We are now in the first triennium during which a draft workplan is to be finalised and implemented. The Bustard MsAP will be executed within regional subdivisions. The southern African region (region 1) includes 10 countries: Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. In general, bustard species richness in southern Africa is high compared to the other regions across Africa, Asia, Europe and Australia, with South Africa having the highest species count (10) of any country within the global range of the family Otididae.

The southern African region boasts 11 bustard species, of which the Ludwig’s Bustard (Neotis ludwigii), classified as globally Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, is the most severely threatened. A recent publication summarising long-term bird road counts cites a decline of 94.3% for the Ludwig’s Bustard within the study area, the highest negative trend among the species recorded by researchers.

The primary threats to bustards include agricultural intensification, collisions with overhead cabling such as power lines, fences, wind turbines, and vehicles, habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation. These birds are also threatened by the illegal trade, mortality from anthropogenically increased predator species, human disturbance, genetic threats, climate change, and legal obstacles. Including missing or ineffective policies, laws and enforcement. A significant challenge is a lack of awareness about bustards and the threats they face. The Bustard MsAP will launch global awareness campaigns, while regional coordinators and in-country participants will promote the work of the MsAP locally.

** Matt Pretorius is a member of BWB, and is the southern African regional coordinator of the Bustard MsAP. Matt works for the EWT’s Wildlife and Infrastructure Unit (WIN), bringing more than a decade’s worth of experience in research related to bustard movements, bustard collisions with power lines and how best to mitigate this threat. In the coming months, he will work to find and recruit suitable in-country partners in each of the different southern African range states to collectively work towards achieving the goals of the MsAP.

Link to download the Bustard MsAP: https://www.cms.int/document/multi-species-action-plan-bustards

Newsletter sign up

Listening for the Voices: Connecting Traditional Knowledge and Conservation in South Africa

By Kutlwano Mokgoro, Legal Officer in the Wildlife in Trade Unit

Across the country, an important journey is unfolding – one centred not on wildlife sightings or field surveys, but on listening.

Through the Voices of Indigenous Communities on Environmental Sustainability (VOICES) Project, Gogo Nomsa Sibeko of Nature Speaks and Responds and I have been travelling to communities across the country in search of voices – voices of knowledge, experience, and wisdom rooted in traditional healing practices.

What is the Voices Project?

The VOICES Project seeks to better understand the realities faced by traditional healers in South Africa when accessing and using natural resources for traditional medicine. At its core, the project creates a respectful and safe space for healers to speak about their work, their knowledge systems, and the challenges they face in continuing practices that have been part of African healing traditions for generations.

These conversations provide valuable insights into the intersection between cultural heritage, community health, and environmental governance.

Traditional medicine remains a crucial part of healthcare for many communities. Central to its healing properties, however, is access to the natural resources used in Muthi. These include both plants and wildlife derivatives that have long held cultural and medicinal significance.

Through VOICES, we will host workshops across all 9 provinces, bringing together traditional healers eager to have their voices heard. In Tshwane, 15 traditional healers joined the discussion, sharing their experiences and perspectives. In Brakpan, the conversation expanded further with 19 participants, and in Soweto, 10 traditional healers gathered to contribute their voices to the project. Our conversation is continuing in Limpopo.

In each location, traditional healers have welcomed the project team with open arms, eager not only to share their knowledge, but also to listen, learn, and engage in dialogue about conservation and environmental governance.

Healing Resources and Conservation Challenges

Many of the species used in traditional medicine are listed under international and national conservation frameworks, including the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and South Africa’s Threatened or Protected Species (TOPS) Regulations.

Traditional healing practices rely on derivatives from animals such as lions, leopards, rhinos, and elephants, as well as plants widely used in traditional medicine. These include species such as the African Potato, African Ginger, and Pineapple Lily.

Because many of these resources fall under conservation regulations, healers often feel vulnerable and excluded from the systems that govern the very resources they rely on to treat and heal their communities.

indigenous knowledge biodiversity conservation South Africa meeting

Bridging the Gap Through Dialogue

One of the most revealing preliminary findings from the VOICES Project has been that traditional healers are eager to engage with environmental governance systems, even when they feel those systems have historically excluded them.

Workshops have shown a genuine willingness among healers to learn about conservation laws, protected species regulations, and the frameworks that govern harvesting and trade.

Yet one issue consistently emerges as a major concern: permits.

Permits are crucial for healers, as they allow the lawful harvesting and use of certain species without fear of penalties or discrimination. However, through discussions in communities across Gauteng, the project team has learned that many healers simply do not know where or how to obtain these permits.

This knowledge gap highlights a significant disconnect between environmental governance systems and the communities affected by them.

The Importance of Listening

By travelling to communities and listening directly to healers, the VOICES Project is helping to illuminate these challenges while fostering mutual understanding between conservation actors and traditional healers.

Importantly, the project does not position healers as passive recipients of information, but as knowledge holders and partners in conversations about sustainability, heritage, and community wellbeing.

As the Project continues its journey across South Africa, its mission remains simple but powerful: to listen, to learn, and to ensure that the voices of traditional healers are heard in conversations about conservation and environmental governance. The insights gathered through the project will be consolidated into a report to be published on the EWT’s LAWS (Land, Air, Water and Species) platform and formally shared with the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment. In doing so, the project aims to inform more inclusive, practical, and culturally responsive policy and regulatory approaches – particularly in relation to permitting systems and access to medicinal resources – while recognising traditional healers as key stakeholders in the sustainable use and conservation of biodiversity.

VOICES Project traditional healers community engagement Gauteng

Newsletter sign up

The Applied Conservation Genetics Unit (ACGU) – a collab between the Endangered Wildlife Trust and Stellenbosch University

Dr Samantha Theron, EWT Conservation Researcher

In January 2023, the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) and Stellenbosch University (SU) joined hands in establishing a molecular laboratory focused on applied conservation genetic research of threatened and endangered African wildlife.

The Applied Conservation Genetics Unit (ACGU), led by Prof Conrad Matthee (SU) and I, employs the use of environmental DNA (eDNA) to detect organisms in the wild and metabarcoding approaches to identify species, and map distributions. Additionally, population genetic and genomic approaches are used to investigate effective population sizes, population stability, resilience and subpopulation connectivity.

Environmental DNA (eDNA) is genetic material that organisms leave behind in their environment. This DNA can be collected from environmental samples like water or soil, allowing the unit to detect species without capturing or disturbing them.

Traditional biodiversity assessments often rely on trapping, direct observation, or specialist field surveys. These methods can be time-consuming, costly, and limited in their ability to detect rare or cryptic species. eDNA has been gaining traction over the past few years as a powerful tool to deliver fast, non-invasive biodiversity insights, without disturbing wildlife.

The ACGU has been employing this tool to detect the presence of elusive, rare, or threatened terrestrial wildlife, and to support broader biodiversity monitoring efforts. This advanced approach has proven useful in (a) detecting species even when there are no visible signs of their presence, (b) identifying multiple species from a single environmental sample, and (c) providing reliable biodiversity data across time and space.

Numerous projects have focused on targeted surveys for elusive or threatened species, including the “Elusive Eight” (Aardvark, Aardwolf, Brown Hyena, Riverine Rabbit, Cape Leopard, Cape Mountain Zebra, Karoo Dwarf Tortoise and Ludwig’s Bustard), subterranean golden moles, threatened tortoises and Cape Stag Beetles.

More recently, we have started to employ eDNA in biodiversity surveys across various remote, species-rich regions of Southern and East Africa. Biodiversity surveys are essential for conservation, especially in these remote regions where biodiversity baselines and species data are typically limited and, in many instances, absent. Given the lack of local expertise and the vastness of these African landscapes, conventional biodiversity surveys are often logistically complex, time-intensive, and taxonomically limited. eDNA offers a non-invasive way to rapidly identify and document species and capture a snapshot of biodiversity in a defined area.

The EWT has undertaken a number of Bioblitzes in a focused effort to provide a comprehensive snapshot of local biodiversity that can contribute to informed conservation strategies. A BioBlitz is an intensive, time-constrained biological survey involving eDNA approaches alongside traditional approaches with specialists and volunteers, in the systematic documentation of biodiversity. The eDNA data generated provides a foundation for mapping biodiversity hotspots, identifying conservation gaps, and supporting conservation strategies, and could even uncover species previously unknown to science.

An example of this is the rediscovery of the De Winton’s Golden Mole using eDNA in 2023. This elusive mole had not been seen for more than 80 years.

Through innovative genetic tools and collaborative conservation planning, fostering local stewardship of natural resources and strengthened local conservation capacity, the ACGU is transforming how threatened species are detected, monitored and protected in Southern Africa, and establishing baseline biodiversity data to address key gaps in biodiversity knowledge in various focal areas within and across Southern- and East Africa.

For more information on the projects being undertaken, visit: acgu.earth/projects

Newsletter sign up

Why the IPBES Business and Biodiversity Assessment Matters

By Suzanne Powell and Catherine Kuhn of the EWT’s Biodiversity and Business Unit

We can no longer afford to overlook nature on a continent where many economies are expanding, infrastructure investment is accelerating, and global markets are demanding stronger environmental performance across value chains. At the same time, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) calls on governments and businesses to take coordinated, transformative action to halt biodiversity loss while strengthening resilience and development outcomes.

Hosted by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), in collaboration with the South Africa Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE), the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) and the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT), the two-day forum provided delegates with an opportunity to exchange ideas, learn from each other and create future collaborative opportunities to solve problems related to the inclusion of environmental practices into business in line with, amongst other, the Global Biodiversity Framework’s Target 15. This target aims to progressively reduce the negative impacts and increase the positive impacts of business on biodiversity and to encourage more sustainable patterns of production.

Among the key presentations was the unpacking and evaluation of a recently released report that highlighted the fact that the cost of the growth of the global economy has been at the cost of immense biodiversity loss. This now poses a critical and pervasive systemic risk to the economy, financial stability and human well-being.

The landmark global assessment places biodiversity firmly at the centre of business risk, responsibility and opportunity. The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) released the Business and Biodiversity Assessment: Summary for Policymakers. Among its authors was the EWT’s head of Sustainability, Kishaylin Chetty. His involvement reflects the growing contribution of African expertise to global conversations on the biodiversity-business interface.

The assessment comes at a critical time when evidence shows that biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people are declining across the globe.

Prepared under IPBES by 79 experts from 35 countries, and drawing on more than 5,000 references, this assessment carries significant scientific and policy weight as the first global IPBES assessment dedicated specifically to business and biodiversity. The report was approved through the IPBES Plenary by representatives of the Platform’s more than 150 member Governments on 9 February 2026, giving the assessment particular international authority.

So what does the assessment reveal? Here are five key insights that show why this report matters:

Nature is a systemic part of the economy

All businesses depend on biodiversity, whether directly or indirectly. Extensive evidence indicates that more than 50% of global GDP depends on nature. While sectors like agriculture, forestry, fisheries and tourism depend directly on biodiversity, other industries are indirectly dependent through their value chains. Raw materials, energy sources, and ecosystem services are all part of modern economies.

As awareness grows, biodiversity loss is increasingly recognised as a systemic risk to economies and financial systems, with serious consequences for financial stability and human wellbeing.

Money is still flowing in the wrong direction

Estimates suggest that globally, only around US$220 billion per year is directed toward biodiversity conservation and restoration, while a staggering US$7.3 trillion flows into nature-negative activities annually. At the same time, current economic incentives continue to lock in harmful activities, reinforcing this stark imbalance. More broadly, today’s business environment is not always compatible with a just and sustainable future, with unsustainable outcomes structurally embedded through perverse incentives, harmful subsidies and the failure to account for biodiversity impacts.

Momentum is growing

Globally, fewer than one percent of publicly listed companies disclose their impacts and dependencies on biodiversity. While this number is growing as awareness increases and frameworks such as the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) gain wider adoption, it raises a more fundamental question: what is actually changing for nature on the ground?

If most companies are not yet measuring or disclosing their impacts, it becomes difficult to know where biodiversity is being lost, and whether actions are contributing to positive conservation outcomes. Compounding this is the lack of independent verification which makes it hard to distinguish between meaningful action and tangible and credible improvements for biodiversity. Businesses need to ask themselves: Are ecosystems recovering? Are pressures on ecosystems being reduced? Are our actions contributing to harm or to positive outcomes? And how are we tracking this to ensure credibility and to avoid greenwashing?

The tools to act are already in place

A common assumption is that limited data is the main reason businesses are not acting on biodiversity. The report challenges this. While biodiversity measurement is complex, many methods already exist to help businesses understand their impacts and dependencies. The real challenge lies in using the correctly aligned approach method.

The report provides a robust guidance table to help companies select the correct method for a particular purpose at the appropriate decision-making level, whether for risk screening, comparing options or assessing impacts on the ground.

The assessment also identifies more than 25 actions businesses can take across strategy, operations, value chains and investment decisions. This includes embedding biodiversity into strategy, reducing impacts, improving supply chain transparency and shifting capital toward nature-positive outcomes.

Transforming the system will require collective effort

Many current incentives still reward activities that harm nature. While business action has historically been driven by regulation, real change requires shifting the system itself. Businesses can help shape an enabling environment by influencing suppliers, partners and markets. Governments are also central to this shift, setting the rules through policy, regulation and incentives. Civil society plays a vital role in building capacity, monitoring progress and holding actors accountable.

Ultimately, transforming the system requires collective action to ensure that positive outcomes for nature become the norm.

In closing, the message is clear: what is good for biodiversity is also good for long-term economic stability and business resilience. Through collaboration, shared responsibility, and an enabling environment, businesses can become part of the solution to shaping a just and sustainable future.

Newsletter sign up

Cross-border collaboration supports the rewilding of orphaned cheetahs

By Olivia Sievert, Project coordinator, Cheetah Conservation Project

In conservation, success often depends on collaboration, careful planning, and the ability to respond quickly to unexpected events. Over the past year, the EWT, together with partners including The Bateleurs and the Ukuzwana Foundation, has been involved in a cross-border effort to give two orphaned cheetah cubs a second chance. What began as two unrelated incidents in Malawi and South Africa became a coordinated project to return both animals to the wild.

In July 2025, a female Cheetah that had been introduced to strengthen the population in Liwonde National Park was killed by Lions, leaving behind two female cubs estimated to be around six-months-old. At this age, cubs are still dependent on their mother, and survival without intervention is unlikely. Because the female represented important genetic contributions to both the park and the broader managed Cheetah metapopulation, park management, with support from the EWT, initiated a hands-off rehabilitation and rewilding plan. When the cubs were found and subsequently rescued, however, they were severely malnourished, and only one survived.

At roughly the same time in South Africa, a separate incident resulted in another orphan. A female Cheetah sustained a severe hunting injury on a reserve in Limpopo and had to be humanely euthanised, leaving behind a female cub of approximately seven-months-old, later named Mara.

In the wild, Cheetah cubs typically remain with their mother for more than a year, after which siblings stay together for several months while learning to hunt independently. These sibling associations can play an important role in early survival. For this reason, a plan was developed to attempt to form a social bond between the two orphaned females. If successful, the intention was to rewild them together and ultimately return them to Malawi to boost the population there.

International translocation of Cheetahs is not an easy feat; it requires multiple permits, veterinary clearances, and coordination between the authorities of both countries. Over several months, the EWT worked with both government and non-government partners to facilitate the movement. Once ready, The Bateleurs provided essential aviation support, enabling our team to travel to Malawi, collect the orphaned cub, and transport her safely to South Africa for bonding and rewilding.

Given their age, both females were taken to a specialised veterinary facility near Nelspruit, where they were gradually introduced. Introductions between unfamiliar Cheetahs must be managed carefully, but in this case, the two females quickly accepted each other, allowing the project to proceed to the next phase.

Following veterinary care, the pair were moved to a reserve managed by the Ukuzwana Foundation in Mpumalanga for rewilding. The reserve supports suitable prey species while maintaining relatively low densities of large predators, with Leopard and Brown Hyena present but no Lions. This provides an excellent environment for the young Cheetahs to develop their hunting skills with reduced risk compared to more predator-dense systems.

Rewilding requires close monitoring to ensure the animals are hunting successfully and maintaining condition while remaining fully independent. Therefore, both females have been fitted with satellite-tracking collars, allowing the team to monitor their movements, assess hunting attempts, and confirm kills. The collars will remain on the Cheetahs when they are relocated back to Malawi so that post-release monitoring can continue.

If progress continues as expected, the rewilding phase will run through mid-year, after which the aim is to move the pair back to Liwonde National Park before the onset of the hot season. Their return will contribute to the genetic and demographic stability of the park’s Cheetah population and will provide further insight into the use of hands-off rewilding for orphaned individuals.

This project highlights the importance of cooperation between conservation organisations, protected area authorities, and technical partners. The rapid response in Malawi, aviation support from The Bateleurs, and the rewilding environment provided by the Ukuzwana Foundation have all been essential to the process.

Orphaned cheetah cub being transported by conservation team

Newsletter sign up

Follow our carnivore conservation unit

South Africa’s Managed Cheetah Metapopulation: A Collaborative Conservation Model

By Kelsey Brown, senior data scientist, Carnivore Conservation Unit

Once widespread across much of Africa and southwestern Asia, the Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) has experienced dramatic range contraction over the past century. Today, the species occupies only a fraction of its historical distribution, with most remaining populations confined to eastern and southern Africa.

Globally, Cheetah numbers are estimated at approximately 6,500 mature individuals, and the population continues to decline. The species is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List due to its small population size and ongoing habitat and prey pressures. Over the past 15 years, global numbers are estimated to have declined by about 37%, driven by habitat loss, human-wildlife conflict, illegal wildlife trade, and declining prey populations.

Equally concerning is the species’ fragmentation. Of the 33 remaining Cheetah populations worldwide, only two contain more than 1,000 mature individuals. Such isolation increases the risk of inbreeding and reduces the species’ resilience to local declines.

Southern Africa remains one of the Cheetah’s most important strongholds. The southern African subspecies (Acinonyx jubatus jubatus) occurs across Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique, and South Africa. However, even here, populations face increasing pressure from habitat fragmentation and expanding human land use.

conservation team transporting cheetah for

The status of cheetahs in South Africa

In South Africa, Cheetahs occur in four management contexts: the free-roaming population, the unmanaged free-ranging population in large protected areas such as Kruger National Park and the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, the managed metapopulation on fenced reserves, and the captive population.

The free-roaming population occurs primarily in northern South Africa and historically occupied around 28,900 km², supporting an estimated 196 mature individuals. A large-scale Free-Roaming Cheetah Census, led by Ashia Cheetah Conservation and the Cheetah Outreach Trust, is currently reassessing the status of this population.

Within protected areas, Kruger National Park (19,623 km²) supports approximately 116 mature Cheetahs, while the South African section of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (9,591 km²) hosts around 80 resident cheetahs.

Alongside these populations is the managed Cheetah metapopulation, a conservation initiative that has become a cornerstone of Cheetah conservation in South Africa. As of December 2025, Cheetahs have been reintroduced to 70 fenced reserves covering 14,204 km², supporting approximately 298 breeding individuals aged 24 months and older.

South Africa also hosts the world’s largest captive Cheetah population, with roughly 600 animals across 68 facilities.

conservation team transporting cheetah for translocation

What is a metapopulation?

A metapopulation is a “population of populations”. These are geographically separated groups that remain connected through movement among habitat patches.

In natural landscapes, this connectivity occurs through dispersal. However, in South Africa’s network of fenced reserves, movement is often restricted. Without intervention, many Cheetah populations in small reserves would become isolated, increasing the risk of inbreeding and local extinction.

To address this challenge, the EWT and its partners manage Cheetahs across fenced reserves as a single connected system. Carefully planned translocations between reserves simulate natural dispersal, maintaining genetic diversity and stabilising small populations.

The concept of managing Cheetahs as a metapopulation was first proposed in 2009, with a formal management framework established by the EWT in 2011. Today, the initiative depends on close collaboration between conservation organisations, reserve managers, provincial authorities, and the national government.

A growing conservation success

Since the metapopulation project was formalised, the managed Cheetah population has grown steadily, demonstrating the value of coordinated, long-term management. Between 2012 and 2025, the population increased at an average annual rate of approximately 8.8%, despite the challenges associated with managing small, fenced populations.

By the end of 2025, the metapopulation comprised roughly 540 Cheetahs across all age classes, including adults, dispersers, and cubs. In 2025 alone, around 90 individuals survived to the disperser and early adult age classes (18-30 months), the cohort most likely to contribute to future population growth.

Maintaining this growth requires continuous oversight. The EWT’s Cheetah Conservation Project works closely with reserve management teams to monitor births and deaths, assess genetic representation, and coordinate translocations to ensure that no single reserve becomes isolated. Each movement is carefully planned to mimic natural dispersal while minimising stress on the animals and disruption to existing populations.

Since 2012, more than 700 translocations have been coordinated as part of the metapopulation project. Alongside this work, we have built a long-term dataset documenting the life histories of more than 2,000 individual Cheetahs across the managed system. These records allow us to track survival, reproduction, and movement patterns, and to identify emerging risks before they affect the population as a whole.

These data also play an important role beyond day-to-day management. They form the scientific basis for the Non-Detrimental Findings required under CITES, which assesses whether regulated international trade can occur without negatively affecting the species in the wild. In South Africa, our population data help demonstrate that carefully managed exports for conservation purposes do not reduce national population viability and can support efforts to restore the species in its historic range.

The same dataset feeds into Population Viability Analyses, which allow us to model how the metapopulation may change under different scenarios. By incorporating information on births, deaths, age structure, and translocations, these models help guide management decisions and evaluate potential risks before actions are taken.

researchers monitoring cheetah population data in field

Looking beyond South Africa

Although South Africa’s managed metapopulation represents only 4-5% of the global Cheetah population, it is playing an increasingly important role in the species’ conservation.

Through coordinated management and strong partnerships, the EWT and its partners have established a growing, genetically managed population across a network of reserves. This population now serves as an important source for reintroductions and restoration efforts, both within South Africa and elsewhere in the cheetah’s historical range.

In a landscape where large, connected ecosystems are becoming increasingly rare, the managed metapopulation demonstrates that fragmented protected areas can still contribute meaningfully to species conservation when they are managed cooperatively.

With continued commitment, collaboration, and science-based decision-making, this model provides a practical framework for maintaining viable Cheetah populations and supporting the species’ long-term future.

Newsletter sign up

Follow our carnivore conservation unit

« Older Entries