Why Africa urgently needs a paradigm shift in conservation

Michael O'Brien-Onyeka, Senior Vice President of Conservation International, Africa Field Division, Nairobi.

Africa's natural wealth underpins the continent’s development potential. However, the current economic model places low premium on Africa’s vast natural capital and requires people to exploit their natural wealth for short-term gains, in ways that create a recurring pattern of scarcity, depletion, and poverty.

In the face an unprecedented scale of potentially cataclysmic human-induced environmental challenges in Africa and their far-reaching economic, social and political impacts, there is an urgent need for a paradigm shift in conservation (or natural capital management) in the continent.