Occasional Paper

Land Reform and Biodiversity Conservation in South Africa: Complementary or in Conflict

“A major challenge for government is to reconcile land reform and biodiversity conservation policies in contested geographical areas.This paper aims to improve understanding of the conflicts that
have arisen between land reform and conservation, and to encourage better comprehension between the land and
conservation sectors. It does this by analysing current experiences in South Africa with regard to land reform in
conservation areas, and, through the use of case studies, exploring synergies and tensions which currently exist between
these two seemingly disparate objectives.”