African voices and their role in improving north–south collaborations for biodiversity conservation

Abstract

While the dominance of policies from the Global North has shaped conservation practices, holistic decision‐making is urgently needed to incorporate more local voices, especially in Africa. Effective conservation strategies may be enhanced by incorporating the expertise and resources of the Global North alongside the knowledge, lived experiences, insights, and leadership of local communities, scientists, and civil society groups from the Global South. This approach fosters mutual respect, equitable partnerships, and shared accountability and moves away from parachute conservation models toward more inclusive and context‐sensitive solutions for biodiversity conservation. We advocate for eliminating parachute conservation practices in Africa and emphasize the importance of more inclusive strategies prioritizing equitable north–south collaborations to address pressing biodiversity challenges. Key challenges in Africa include financial transparency issues, misaligned philanthropy, unbalanced representation of Indigenous perspectives, and the influence of international organizations. Possible mechanisms to move away from conservation practices driven by colonial legacies, legacies in which policies are often developed in the Global North and imposed on the Global South, sometimes without prior informed consent, include free, prior, and informed consent on projects and equitable benefit‐sharing mechanisms. By prioritizing the voices of local communities, including local scientific expertise and Indigenous knowledge systems, we posit that a more just and sustainable global environmental policy framework can be realized that can contribute to the long‐term well‐being of the planet and its people.

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