Abstract
Community conservation volunteering at game parks has been a much talked about topic in tourism research in recent years. This research examined conservation volunteering activities of communities abutting the Kruger National Park (KNP), South Africa. The research sought to identify challenges faced by these communities which prevent them from being a member of a conservation volunteer-based organisation and consequently, inhibits them from taking part in related park volunteer conservation activities. A qualitative methodology using focus groups was adopted to establish why volunteer activities in national parks were generally not supported by people from abutting park communities. Little is known from these rural communities in terms of their reasons for not volunteering. Findings highlighted that there is need to build stronger alliances with these communities to overcome community socioeconomic challenges that hold them back from conservation volunteerism participation. A key recommendation is how conservation volunteer organisations can make changes within their organisation can be more inclusive via community-based ecotourism education to promote the need for communities to take an active role in conservation.