In southern Africa, many transfrontier conservation areas (TFCAs) are making an appearance. Their presumptive goal: peace through environmental cooperation. However of four recently established TFCAs, only one has this goal explicitly included in its treaty, bringing it in line with the ’Park for Peace’ category created by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The developers of the other three TFCAs only profess such a goal. This article questions the notion of ’ environmental peacebuilding’ (peace through environmental cooperation); the creation of these transfrontier areas is positioned in their legal and political frameworks and attempts to define the concept of conservation and development that is sought in southern Africa. The author looks at the idea of peace through TFCAs in southern African: Do they succeed in creating or reconstructing ecological, social, and cultural relationships within the region’s political context of ’reconciliation’?