Thinking Wild Photo
Conservation Ecology

Research

My research asks how mammals, plants, people, and environmental change interact in southern African savannas—and how those relationships can inform conservation.

The work

Much of my research has grown from years spent in and around the Greater Kruger Ecosystem in South Africa. I am especially interested in questions that cross traditional boundaries: how elephants reshape woody vegetation, how smaller mammals influence recruitment, how wildlife responds to rainfall and water, and how the ecological value of species overlaps with their importance to people.

Selected publication
2026
Frontiers in Forests and Global Change

Rooted in community: local perspectives on the cultural and conservation value of marula in rural South Africa

Christopher M. Banotai, Craig R. Spencer & John L. Koprowski

Marula is more than an ecologically important savanna tree. It is also closely tied to food, medicine, livelihoods, ceremony, and cultural identity. Drawing on interviews with 60 residents of Ga-Makushane and Namakgale in Limpopo Province, this study examined how people value marula, perceive its conservation, and think about the protected areas and elephants that are part of the same landscape. The results showed strong cultural and conservation value, especially among older respondents, low support for elephant culling, and a need for conservation approaches that bring local knowledge and community priorities into decisions about marula’s future.

Read the paper ↗