​Given the theme of the current issue of Africa in Fact – Inclusive Conservation – and the tumultuous times in which we find ourselves, it feels appropriate to consider our publication in the context of the seemingly deranged policy swings of US president Donald Trump and his government. 
 
In 2017, Donald Trump pulled the US out of the Paris Climate Agreement, a move that symbolised his administration’s broader retreat from multilateral environmental cooperation. This decision reflected a dangerous ideology, one that prefers walls over cooperation, guns over governance, and short-term profit over long-term sustainability. 

Trump’s isolationist, market-driven, might-is-right approach, which has come full circle in the first weeks of his second term, has a direct parallel in the controversy over Africa’s fortress conservation and green militarisation model. Both operate on the same logic: that exclusion, force, and marketisation can solve complex crises. 

Activists protest against climate change and the stop of USAID while wearing masks featuring (L-R) US Vice President JD Vance, US President Donald Trump and Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, in Munich, in February 2025, prior to the start of the Munich Security Conference.

Africa’s conservation history is deeply intertwined with the colonial legacy of fencing off nature and excluding indigenous communities. National parks were created not as sanctuaries for wildlife but as playgrounds for elite trophy hunters and foreign tourists, displacing local communities in the process. The model was simple: protect wildlife by keeping people out. But just as Trump’s withdrawal from climate treaties weakens global environmental efforts, fortress conservation has undermined the very ecosystems it claims to protect. There is a strong case to be made that severing the relationship between people and nature has fuelled resentment, poaching, and environmental degradation. 
 
Unfortunately, many African governments have responded to poaching with military force instead of addressing the root causes: poverty, land displacement, and economic exclusion. South Africa’s so-called “war on rhino poaching” is a prime example. Instead of integrating local communities into conservation efforts, authorities deployed armed patrols, surveillance drones, and shoot-to-kill policies. The unintended consequences have been corruption inside protected areas, expendable poachers replaced as fast as they were arrested or killed, and organised crime networks continuing their dirty work.