Living natural resources contribute to local, national, regional, and global economies, through tourism, forestry, hunting and fisheries, ecosystem services, and other wildlife economy activities. They also contribute to human health and wellbeing through the provision of clean air, potable water, and natural food. With growing human populations, developing economies, and the increasing demand for natural resources, it is ever more important to understand the significant contributions being made by wild resources and the importance of investing in these resources.

The Wildlife Economy uses indigenous wildlife, both plants and animals (marine and terrestrial), as an economic asset to create value that aligns with conservation objectives and delivers sustainable growth and economic development.

While conducting the research for the State of the Wildlife Economy in Africa report the School of Wildlife Conservation (SOWC) collected and analysed data from numerous different sources and covering many different wildlife economy topics. This database includes a list of these references to allow for easy searching and locating relevant references for those interested in the wildlife economy in Africa. The database will be updated regularly and we encourage you to also share your own and other resources which we can add to keep the database up-to-date.

You can download the State of the Wildlife Economy in Africa report here.