Eastern Cape, South Africa

The Eastern Cape landscape represents one of the most ambitious emerging conservation regions in southern Africa.

Stretching across the Greater Addo National Park expansion zone, the Baviaanskloof Mega Reserve, and the Gouritz Biosphere Reserve, the region forms a vast mega-living landscape linking biodiversity conservation with working rural landscapes.

Yet the landscape is also defined by deep historical inequalities. Communities living within and around these conservation areas—particularly farmworkers, small-scale fishers, and descendants of Khoi and San peoples—continue to experience restricted access to land, livelihoods, and cultural landscapes as conservation expands.

The Wild5 initiative focuses on restoring dignity, participation, and equitable access within conservation systems. Through embedded research, biocultural mapping, policy dialogue, and community organising, the programme aims to reshape conservation governance so that biodiversity protection and social justice advance together.

This landscape offers a powerful demonstration opportunity: showing how conservation can move beyond fortress models toward living landscapes where people and nature thrive together.