ABSTRACT
Part V presents examples of innovative actions designed to solve specific conservation problems using unconventional approaches. The chapters tend to focus on more well-known and better-documented examples from South Africa, so an attempt has been made in this introduction to list and summarize some of the lesser-known examples from elsewhere in the region. The South African examples reflect a shift in state policy and action towards more inclusive and economically viable modalities of conservation. Many of the other cases are linked less directly to the state, although it is true to say that they would seldom have happened without an opportunity being offered by one or two motivated and enlightened officials. The common feature of what may appear as a disparate set of examples is a new way of thinking about conservation that gives credence to the rights and benefits of society, and especially local people, and to the financial and economic viability of conservation land.
