Driving Triple‐Bottom‐Line Value: Networks and Impacts in South Africa's Emerging Game Meat Industry

The current game meat industry value chain analysis focuses primarily on individual firm analysis, production costs and mapping of illegal and legal game meat trade routes. Although there is an attempt to demonstrate the sector's potential contribution to conservation, food security, and livelihood improvement, it remains unclear how the industry collectively creates value in a sustainable and equitable manner, and to whom it is created, especially given historical and contemporary inequalities in land ownership in South Africa. This article looks at how the game meat industry processes, practices and actors link and/or interact to deliver the industry's unique value proposition and how the bundle of benefits are distributed. A systematic review of literature and empirical evidence was analysed to identify value creation and intricate networks of business activities within the game meat value chains. Findings reveal complex, interdependent networks spread across the value chains, with the industry's value better understood from social, environmental, and economic perspectives. Demographical skewed social and economic value distribution of the industry was observed mimicking the past historical land ownership patterns. These results demystifies game meat value creation processes and highlights business opportunities for full streamlined participation in the game meat sector.