Creating Value Through Coexistence. Building a future where communities and wildlife thrive together.
Harmony with Wildlife
What does it mean to live alongside wildlife?
When people and wildlife thrive together, landscapes flourish, communities prosper and conservation lasts.
Across Greater iSimangaliso and Okavango delta landscapes, this is not a hypothetical question. It is part of everyday life. Elephants follow ancient migration routes, predators roam beyond protected areas and communities share their land with some of Africa’s most iconic wildlife.
These shared landscapes are extraordinary, but they also bring real challenges. Livestock losses, crop damage and human-wildlife conflict can place significant pressure on rural livelihoods, making it difficult for communities to see wildlife as an asset rather than a cost.
Communities at the Centre
At Wild Impact, we believe conservation succeeds when people and wildlife thrive together. Through our Harmony with Wildlife programme, implemented in partnership with andBeyond, Zuka Private Game Reserve and local communities, we are creating value through coexistence, ensuring that the benefits of conservation are shared by the people who live alongside wildlife.
Harmony with Wildlife is built on a simple principle: conservation is strongest when communities are active participants, not passive beneficiaries.
Across each landscape, Wild Impacts Community & Conservation Rangers, recruited from within partner communities, work alongside local residents to identify wildlife hotspots and strategically deploy motion-sensor camera traps. These cameras quietly capture the movement of wildlife across the landscape, while Rangers regularly collect and upload the images for analysis.
Creating Lasting Awareness
Wild Impact has worked closely with partner communities through regular engagement sessions and community meetings, creating opportunities to discuss the wildlife living within their landscapes and the challenges and opportunities that come with coexistence.
The camera trap images have also become valuable educational tools within Wild Impact’s Echo Environmental Education programme. Learners are introduced to the wildlife found within their own communities, helping them build a stronger connection to nature while developing an appreciation for biodiversity and conservation.
Alongside education and awareness, the programme continues to explore practical approaches to reducing human-wildlife conflict. One initiative currently being investigated is the potential translocation of individual hyenas that repeatedly enter community areas.
Every Observation Matters
Since the programme began, 47 camera traps have been strategically deployed across three active conservation landscapes, capturing more than 30,307 wildlife images. Together, these records have documented 64 mammal species and 82 bird species, providing valuable insight into species distribution, movement patterns and ecosystem health while building one of the programmes most important conservation datasets.
During the first quarter of 2026 alone, camera traps across Greater iSimangaliso recorded 1,028 wildlife observations, representing 20 mammal species, while monitoring across Botswana’s Okavango Delta recorded 3,134 observations, representing 30 mammal species.
These observations will form the basis of the programmes first community incentive payouts, marking an exciting milestone as conservation outcomes begin translating into direct community benefits. Every observation strengthens the Harmony with Wildlife Incentive Model, ensuring that the ecological value of wildlife is recognised while creating tangible benefits for the communities that help protect it.
Creating Value Through Wildlife
The images captured by the camera traps feed into the Harmony with Wildlife Incentive Model, an innovative system that rewards communities for protecting the wildlife that shares their land.
Every wildlife observation is assigned a value based on several factors, including the species conservation importance, rarity, ecological role and potential for human-wildlife conflict.
Every three months, these values are totaled, and the resulting incentive is allocated to a community development fund, supporting projects identified and led by the communities themselves.
The project is further supported by a Reparation Model that assists households affected by livestock predation. Through a structured incident reporting and verification process, livestock losses caused by predators such as leopards and hyenas are documented and verified. Once confirmed, affected livestock owners receive compensation from a recovery fund to help reduce the financial impact of these losses.
Looking Ahead
Harmony with Wildlife continues to evolve as new communities embrace the idea that conservation can create value for both people and nature. This journey has recently expanded into Tanzanias Lake Manyara landscape, where the programme is beginning to work alongside communities.
So, what does it mean to live alongside wildlife?
It means recognising that conservation is not only about protecting animals but about supporting the people who share their landscapes. It means understanding that every species has a role to play, every community has a voice, and every observation can contribute to a healthier ecosystem.
Most importantly, it means creating a future where people and wildlife do not simply exist alongside one another.
They thrive together.
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Wild Impact is a Public Benefit Organisation registered in South Africa. Reg. No.: 930002115