For rural and peri-urban communities living adjacent to protected areas and biodiversity hotspots, communication infrastructure is not evenly distributed. Access to information is often determined by cost-factors, connectivity and language. This means that the communication platforms conservation organisations choose should be a result of understanding these factors. Knowing this determines who is included in conversations and who is left out.

For many rural communities, local radio and community newspapers are not ‘old’ channels from a previous era. They are often the primary systems through which many people receive, interpret and respond to information about the landscape they live within.

The scale of radio listenership in South Africa provides a clear starting point. Data from the Broadcast Research Council’s RAMS Amplify (2024) shows that 75% of people aged 15 and above listen to radio each week, with an average daily listening time of 5 hours and 12 minutes. Across 293 community stations and 41 commercial and public services, radio reaches a combined weekly audience of 31.6 million people. Within this, local news plays a central role. Around 65.9% of listeners tune in specifically for local news content. These figures indicate not only reach, but also attention, relevance, and a really important opportunity to reach communities.

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa reports that home internet access in metropolitan areas sits at approximately 17% of households, while in rural areas it drops to around 1%. Across the African continent, 57% of urban residents were online in 2024 compared to 23% of rural residents. These conditions limit the extent to which social media campaigns can function as primary engagement tools in rural conservation contexts. Limited engagement with digital campaigns is not necessarily because people are choosing not to participate, but because the conditions required to access and interact with that content are unevenly distributed. Where connectivity is uneven, digital strategies alone do not reach the people most directly affected by conservation policies and land management decisions.

The role of traditional media extends beyond information dissemination. There is a distinction between communication that speaks at communities and communication that includes them as participants. Community radio, in particular, offers a format where local voices can articulate their own relationships to land, wildlife and resource use. When conservation organisations collaborate with stations to host discussions with community members, traditional leaders or local environmental stewards, the content reflects lived experience rather than through interpretations formed outside the community.

This affects how conservation messages are understood. Listeners are not only hearing from institutions, but from voices they recognise and trust, who explain these issues in familiar language and within local realities.

Traditional knowledge through community radio

This approach is also relevant when considering traditional knowledge systems. A large proportion of traditional knowledge in rural areas is held in oral form. Research published through Cambridge Core in 2024 indicates that 80% of the world’s remaining biodiversity is stewarded by indigenous people, whose knowledge includes seasonal indicators, land management techniques and observations of species behaviour. These forms of knowledge are transmitted through storytelling, observation and intergenerational exchange rather than written or digital records. As a result, they are not easily captured within formal databases or online platforms.

International policy frameworks recognise this. The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, adopted in December 2022 by 196 countries, includes provisions that acknowledge the role of indigenous and traditional knowledge in achieving biodiversity targets.

However, recognition at policy level requires corresponding communication systems that can engage with how this knowledge is held and shared. Community radio provides one such system. It allows knowledge holders to speak in their own languages, to describe environmental indicators in context and to connect these insights to contemporary conservation concerns.

For conservation organisations, engaging in this way positions them as partners in knowledge exchange rather than external actors extracting information.

Education through community media

Education is another area where traditional media plays a direct role.

Schools in rural areas near protected environments frequently operate with limited resources, which affects the depth of environmental education available to learners. Community radio and vernacular print create additional channels through which ecological concepts can be introduced and discussed.

Programmes that use storytelling, drama formats or listener call-ins can explain topics such as water conservation, biodiversity protection or human-wildlife interaction in accessible ways. When delivered in local languages, this content supports comprehension and encourages participation.

Trust, communication and social licence

The relational dimension of communication becomes particularly important when considering long-term conservation outcomes. The concept of a social licence to operate refers to the level of acceptance or approval that a community grants to an organisation or activity. In conservation, this includes support for protected areas, compliance with regulations and participation in stewardship initiatives.

Social licence is not secured through policy alone. It is influenced by how institutions communicate, who they engage with and whether communities recognise themselves within those processes.

Traditional media contributes to this by operating through established trust networks. Community radio presenters, for example, are known figures who speak the language of their audience and understand local dynamics. When conservation information is shared through these channels, it enters a space where listeners already have a relationship with the medium and its hosts. This does not guarantee agreement, but it creates conditions where engagement is more likely.

Traditional media does not replace other forms of communication. It functions alongside digital platforms, stakeholder meetings and formal reporting processes.

However, in community contexts where access, language and trust shape how information moves, radio and community newspapers occupy a central position.

For conservation agencies working in rural and peri-urban areas, placing traditional media at the core of a communication strategy means choosing platforms that people already use, trust and can access consistently.