Participatory study of policy process for wildlife conservation and ecotourism in Eswatini: A multiple streams analysis

By the 1950 s, overhunting in the African Kingdom of Eswatini drove most of its wildlife to extinction. In 2022, Eswatini has one of the most robust conservation success stories in all of Southern Africa and yet has received minimal scholarly attention. Using the Multiple Streams Framework, to understand a complex system, we analyze 40 interviews and 34 policy documents to study variation in problems, policy, and politics across four different types of conservation areas: Community Based Wildlife Protected Areas, a Royal National Park, a Parastatal National Park, and a Privately Managed Protected Area. Our research is participatory, meaning Eswatini conservation professionals played a role in shaping research design and questions and collecting data. We found that policy solutions common to all institutions include 1) the absolute decision-making power of the king, 2) the stringent wildlife protection law in the 1953 Game Act, and 3) a surprisingly conducive space for communities to enact community-based conservation amidst an authoritarian monarchy. The most important problems include economic challenges (e.g. poverty) and climate change. Politics play a role, with unprecedented, violent pro-democracy protests in the summer of 2021 with activists calling for increased human rights considerations, a problem that spills into the wildlife conservation sector. Findings can be used by policy-makers seeking to replicate conservation successes elsewhere, or to enact reforms in the Eswatini system to enable its proven system of wildlife conservation to adapt and endure.