Abstract
In recent decades conservation biology has achieved a high position among the sciences. This is certainly true of South Africa, a small country, but the third most biodiverse in the world. This article traces some aspects of the transformation of South African wildlife management during the 1930s to the 1960s from game reserves based on custodianship and the “balance of nature” into scientifically managed national parks with a philosophy of “command and control” or “management by intervention.” In 1910 the four British colonies had formed the Union of South Africa, and by the 1920s there was wide acceptance of national parks, a development influenced by their success in the United States. It was not, however, until after the Second World War, that management of the expanding conservation estate altered from a rather unsystematic laissez faire variety, into more scientifically informed management practices with an efficient bureaucracy in charge. This was achieved by modifications in organizational structures and institutional cultures initiated by a change of government in 1948 which, this article argues, impacted in turn on wildlife management and shaped and professionalized many aspects of that field science. “Management by intervention” was the hallmark of South African wildlife and conservation biology from the 1960s until recently, when there have been shifts towards “adaptive resource management” in a period of further change in the country’s politics.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adams Jonathan S., McShane Thomas O. 1996. The Myth of Wild Africa: Conservation without Illusion. Berkeley etc.: University of California Press
Anderson David, Grove Richard. (eds.) 1987. Conservation in Africa: People, Policies and Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Anker Peder. 2001. Imperial Ecology; Environmental Order in the British Empire, 1895–1945. Cambridge MA: Cambridge University Press
Beinart, William. 2003. The Rise of Conservation in South Africa: Settlers, Livestock and the Environment 1770–1950. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Bigalke Archives
Bigalke R. 1939a. Animals and Zoos Today. London: Cassell
Bigalke R. 1939b. A Guide to Some Common Animals of the Kruger National Park. Pretoria: Van Schaik
——Bigalke R.!--> 1939c. National Parks and their Functions, with Special Reference to South Africa. Pamphlet No. 10, South African Biological Society. Pretoria: Biological Society
Bigalke R. 1942. Fauna van die Krugerwildtuin Soorte wat Minder Bekend is. Huisgenoot 24: 17, 40
Bigalke R. 1943. Our National Parks; Past and Future. South African Journal of Science 40: 248–253
Bigalke R. 1946. Science and Nature Conservation in the Transvaal: A Short Historical Account. Fauna and Flora 27: 13–15
——Bigalke R.!--> 1949. “Krugerwildtuin buitengewone geleenthede om dierelewe tydsaam te bestudeer,” South African Railways and Harbours Magazine August: 559–563
——Bigalke R.!--> 1950. “Science and the Conservation of Wild Life in South Africa.” Journal of the South African Veterinary Medical Association 21: 166–172
Bigalke R. 1950a. Science and the Conservation of Wild Life in South Africa. Journal of the South African Veterinary Medical Association 21: 66–172
Bigalke R. 1950b. Wild life Conservation in the Union of South Africa. Fauna and Flora 1: 5–42
Bigalke R., Skinner J. 2002. The Zoological Survey: An Historical Perspective. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa 57(1&2): 37–43
Bowler Peter. 1992. The Fontana History of the Environmental Sciences. London: Fontana
Bramwell Anna. 1989. Ecology in the 20th Century: A History. New Haven and London: Yale University Press
Brooks Shirley. 2001. “Changing Nature: A Critical Historical Geography of the Umfolozi and Hluhluwe Game Reserves, Zululand, 1887 to 1947.” Ph.D. Dissertation, Queen’s University
Brooks Shirley. 2004. National Parks for Natal? Zululand’s Game Reserves and the Shaping of Conservation Management Policy in Natal 1920s to 1940s. Journal of Natal and Zulu History 22: 73–108
Brown A. C. (ed.) 1977. A History of Scientific Endeavour in South Africa. Cape Town: Royal Society
Carruthers Jane. 1992. The Dongola Wild Life Sanctuary: ‹Psychological Blunder, Economic Folly and Political Monstrosity’ or ‹More Valuable than Rubies and Gold’? Kleio 24: 82–100
Carruthers Jane. 1994. Dissecting the Myth: Paul Kruger and the Kruger National Park. Journal of Southern African Studies 20(2): 263–284
Carruthers Jane. 1995a. The Kruger National Park: A Social and Political History. Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press
Carruthers, E. J. 1995b. “Game Protection in the Transvaal 1846 to 1926.” Ph.D. Thesis, University of Cape Town
Carruthers Jane. 2001. Wildlife and Warfare: The Life of James Stevenson-Hamilton. Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press
Carruthers Jane. 2006. Mapungubwe: An Historical and Contemporary Analysis of a World Heritage Cultural Landscape. Koedoe 49: 1–14
Jane Carruthers 2007. “Influences on Wildlife Management and Conservation Biology in South Africa c.1900 to c.1940.” South African Historical Journal 58: 65–90
Centre for Development and Enterprise. 2005. Land Reform in South Africa: A 21 st Century Perspective. CDE Research Policy in the Making No. 14. CDE: Johannesburg
Davis D. H. S. (ed.). 1964. Ecological Studies in Southern Africa. The Hague: Junk
De Vos, V., Bengis, R. C. and Coetzee, H. J. 1983. “Population Control of Large Mammals in the Kruger National Park.” N. Owen-Smith (ed.), Management of Large Mammals in African Conservation Areas. Pretoria: H.A.U.M, pp. 213–222
Du Toit J., Rogers K. H., Biggs H. C. (eds.) 2003. The Kruger Experience: Ecology and Management of Savanna Heterogeneity. Washington: Island Press
Dubow Saul. 2006. A Commonwealth of Knowledge: Science, Sensibility and White South Africa c.1820–2000. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Dubow Saul, Jeeves Alan H. (eds.) 2005. South Africa’s 1940s: Worlds of Possibilities. Cape Town: Double Storey
Dunlap Thomas R. 1999. Nature and the English Diaspora: Environment and History in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Farber P. L. 2000. Finding Order in Nature: The Naturalist Tradition from Linnaeus to E.O. Wilson. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press
Grinnell J. 1935. Natural Balance for Wildlife in National Parks and its Maintenance. Journal of the Society for the Protection of the Fauna of the Empire, part 24: 61–66
Guha Ramachandra. 1995. Ecology and Equity: The Use and Abuse of Nature in Contemporary India. London: Routledge
Gunderson L. H., Holling C. S. (eds.) 2002. Panarchy: Understanding Transformations in Human and Natural Systems. Washington: Island Press
Hall-Martin Anthony, Carruthers Jane (eds.) 2003. South African National Parks: A Celebration. Johannesburg: Horst Klemm
Hammond-Tooke W. D. 1997. Imperfect Interpreters: South Africa’s Anthropologists 1920–1990. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press
Hoek, P. W. 1952. “Verslag oor ‹n Ondersoek van die Bestuur van die Verskeie Nasionale Parke en die Nasionale Parkeraad se Administrasie.” Unpublished report
Hoffman M. T. 1993. Major P.J. Pretorius and the Decimation of the Addo Elephant Herd in 1919–1920: Important Reassessments. Koedoe 36(2): 23–44
House of Assembly Debates, South Africa. 1961
International Union for the Protection of Nature. 1951. The Position of Nature Protection Throughout the World in 1950. Brussels: IUPN
——International Union for the Protection of Nature.--!> 1953. Proceedings of the Third International Conference: Protection of the Fauna and Flora of Africa. Bukavu, Belgian Congo: IUCN
Ise John. 1961. Our National Park Policy: A Critical History. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press
Jardine N., Secord J. A., Spary E. (eds.) 1996. Cultures of Natural History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Kennedy, A. D. 1999. “Treading Lightly: Science and Environmental Change in the Kruger National Park”, unpublished paper c.1999
Kingsland Sharon E. 2005. The Evolution of American Ecology 1890–2000. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press
Knobel Rocco. 1956. The I.U.C.N. South African Biological Society Pamphlet 18: 26–33
Knobel Rocco. 1979. The Economic and Cultural Values of South African National Parks, Player IAN (ed) Voices of the Wilderness. Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball
Kohler, Robert E. 2002. Landscapes and Labscapes: Exploring the Lab-Field Border in Biology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Kruger National Park Archives
Labuschagne, R. J. n.d. The Kruger Park and Other National Parks. Johannesburg: Da Gama
Labuschagne R. J. 1958. 60 Years Kruger Park. Pretoria: National Parks Board of Trustees
Leopold Aldo. 1933. Game Management. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons
Lewis Michael. 2005 Indian Science for Indian Tigers?: Conservation Biology and the Question of Cultural Values. Journal of the History of Biology 38(2): 185–207
Maake Nhlanhla. 1996. Inscribing identity on the landscape: national symbols in South Africa. K. Darian Smith, L. Gunner and S. Nuttal (eds.), Text, Theory, Space: Land, Literature and History in South Africa and Australia. London etc: Routledge. pp. 145–155
MacKenzie John M. 1988. The Empire of Nature: Hunting, Conservation and British Imperialism. Manchester: Manchester University Press
MacKenzie John M. (ed.) 1990. Imperialism and the Natural World. Manchester: Manchester University Press
Mills, M. G. L., Lubchenco, J., Robertson, W. IV, Biggs, H. C. and Mabunda, D. 2003. “Reflections on the Kruger Experience and Reaching Forward.” J. Du Toit, K. H. Rogers and H. C. Biggs (eds.), The Kruger Experience: Ecology and Management of Savanna Heterogeneity. Washington: Island Press
National Parks Board Archives, Pretoria
National Archives of South Africa, Pretoria. TES2631 F10/439
O’Meara Dan. 1996. Forty Lost Years: The Apartheid State and the Politics of the National Party, 1948–1994. Johannesburg: Ravan, and Athens: Ohio University Press
Pienaar, U. de V. 1983. “Management by Intervention: The Pragmatic/Economic Otion.” N. Owen-Smith (ed.), Management of Large Mammals in African Conservation Areas. Pretoria: HAUM, pp. 22–36
Pretoria News 22 Dec. 1952
Primack R. B. 1993. Essentials of Conservation Biology. Sunderland MA: Sinauer Associates Inc
Pritchard J. A. 1999. Preserving Yellowstone’s Natural Conditions: Science and the Perception of Nature. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press
Pullin A. S. 2002. Conservation Biology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Rand Daily Mail 13 Jan. 1955
Robin Libby. 2007. How a Continent Created a Nation. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press
Sellars R. W. 1997. Preserving Nature in the National Parks: A History. New Haven etc
Shahabuddin Ghazala, Rangarajan Mahesh (eds.) 2007. Making Conservation Work: Securing Biodiversity in this New Century. Uttaranchal: Permanent Black
Sinclair, A. R. E. 1983. “Management of Conservation Areas as Ecological Baseline Controls.” N. Owen-Smith (ed.), Management of Large Mammals in African Conservation Areas. Pretoria: H.A.U.M, pp. 13–22
Steinhart E. I. 2006. Black Poachers, White Hunters: A Social History of Hunting in Colonial Kenya. Oxford: James Currey
Stevenson-Hamilton James. 1947. The True Approach to Wild Life Preservation: Study in the Field. African Wild Life 1(2): 11
Stevenson-Hamilton Archives, “Fairholm”, Larkhall, Scotland
Transvaal Province. 1945. Report of the Game Commission of Inquiry TP6–1945. Pretoria: Government Printer
Van der Merwe N. J. 1962. The Position of Nature Conservation in South Africa. Koedoe 5: 1–127
Van Rensburg A. P. J. 1975. Die Geskiedenis van die Nasionale Bontebokpark, Swellendam. Koedoe 18:165–90
Van Wyk, P. and Le Riche, E. A. N. 1984. “The Kalahari Gemsbok National Park, 1931–1981.” Koedoe, supplement 1984, Proceedings of a Symposium on the Kalahari Ecosystem, Oct. 1983: 21–32
Vincent Jack. 1970. The History of Umfolozi Game Reserve, Zululand, as it relates to management. Lammergeyer 11: 7–49
Western David. 1997. In the Dust of Kiliminjaro. Washington: Island Press
Wild Life Society of South Africa Archives
Wilkins I., Strydom H. 1979. The Super-Afrikaners: Inside the Afrikaner Broederbond. Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball
Wright R. G. 1992. Wildlife Research and Management in the National Parks. Urbana and Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Carruthers, J. Conservation and Wildlife Management in South African National Parks 1930s–1960s. J Hist Biol 41, 203–236 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10739-007-9147-3
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10739-007-9147-3