The responsibility to consume: Excessive “environmentourism” against rhinoceros extinction in South Africa

From 2007 till 2015, rhinoceros (rhino) poaching grew rapidly in and around Kruger National Park, South Africa. And though poaching numbers have declined since then, the “poaching crisis” and its consequences continue to highly influence rhetoric and practice in the area, including continuing public outcries that the rhino is close to extinction. This discourse of extinction is also prevalent among the luxurious tourist lodges on private nature reserves of the Greater Kruger Area (GKA) that attract wealthy tourists. Some lodges have now started initiatives in which “responsible” tourists can join the fight against rhino poaching, drawing on Western fantasies about white saviours of African nature that is under threat from black poachers. These tourist activities share important similarities with “philanthrocapitalism”, in which wealthy philanthropists address social and environmental challenges drawing on business principles that made them successful, which I combine with anthropological literature on giving. Based on ethnographic research and discourse analysis on the tourism industry, I explore such high-end, excessive “environmentourist” activities, which differ in several ways from other types of ethical tourism. I argue that such activities are based on a reductionist articulation of the rhino poaching crisis, depoliticizing it from its socio-economic and historical context and that they are “excessive”, in that they produce and legitimize exorbitant forms of privatized, luxurious tourism and ethical consumption as a solution for social and environmental crises. A crucial element of such excessive environmentourism is that wealthy tourists are expected to consume and/or give against extinction, which is often framed as their “responsibility”.