We investigated the possibility that sylvatic circulation of African swine fever virus (ASFV) in warthogs and Ornithodoros ticks had extended beyond the historically affected northern part of South Africa that was declared a controlled area in 1935 to prevent the spread of infection to the rest of the country. Not only do these initiatives lead to further engrained spatial injustice, we conclude that this conservation-property alliance at the centre of the ‘wildlife economy’ also willingly sacrifices environmental sustainability on the altar of white conservation imaginations and private profit. Two popular recent manifestations of this alliance in particular, share block systems that distribute ownership of access to real estate in private reserves and wildlife housing estates, have established new conservation-property linkages that entrench capitalist socioecological fixes. Using ethnographic data from the South African Lowveld region that includes the Kruger National Park, the paper takes these points further by arguing that a rapidly growing alliance between private conservation and property developers actively conserve inequality by maintaining and even extending spatial injustice in the region.

This stands in sharp contrast to recent critiques that suggest that private conservation reinforces structural inequality by denying access to land and perpetuating unjust labour conditions. Central to the strategy is the role of private conservation actors, who keenly posit their commercial model as the best way to achieve these objectives. This strategy aims to facilitate the development of a ‘wildlife economy’ as a solution to unemployment, loss of biodiversity and rural development. In 2016, South Africa launched its National Biodiversity Economy Strategy.

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