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The economics of community-based wildlife conservation in Zimbabwe
Abstract
This thesis deals with the economics of community-based wildlife conservation in Zimbabwe. Mode of access: World Wide Web (HTML and PDF formats); Adobe Acrobat Reader. Title from home page (viewed June 21, 2004). Added t.p. with thesis statement inserted. Thesis (Ph. D.)--Göteborg University, 2003. Includes bibliographical references.
... As a result, there is increasing pressure from interest groups to involve local communities in wildlife conservation. In fact, scholars such as Muchapondwa (2003) and Dikgang and Muchapondwa (2017) argue that harnessing the tourism potential and involving indigenous people in wildlife conservation might address some of these social problems. Although there has been an effort to integrate local communities in wildlife management, the outcome has not been favourable in some parts of the region. ...
... It is important that communities get the configuration of CAMPFIRE they want because it has potential to enhance wildlife conservation and improve rural livelihoods (Muchapondwa 2003). CAMPFIRE's positive impact on wildlife conservation largely comes through discouraging poaching by communities and others they might assist, particularly in the buffer 2 The Mahenye community has one of the most successful CAMPFIRE in the country. ...
... It is one of the first communities to operate CAMPFIRE when it was instituted by the government during the mid-1980s and received a lot of donor support. 3 The Appropriate Authority status grants the holder rights to: exploit wildlife; cede to others the exploitation of wildlife, receive all wildlife-related revenues directly; carry out problem animal control; carry out anti-poaching enforcement; and protect the resource in any other way (Muchapondwa 2003). 4 Institutions refer to the rules, norms, and strategies adopted by individuals operating within and across organisations and exist in the minds of the participants and are sometimes shared as implicit knowledge rather than in an explicit and written form (Ostrom 1999). ...
Wildlife is widely becoming an important vehicle for rural development in most third-world countries across the globe. With wildlife, as with other conservation and development policies, policymakers are usually not informed about the needs and wants of poor rural households and roll out programmes that are not tailor made to suit their desires, which often results in policy failure. We use a survey-based choice experiment in this paper to investigate household preferences for various attributes of a wildlife management scheme. The survey was administered in local communities around the Gonarezhou National Park in Zimbabwe. Respondents showed great willingness to move from the status quo to a regime that gives them full control over wildlife. Thus, our results speak to increased devolution of wildlife management from the rural district councils into the hands of sub-district producer communities. The respondents’ willingness-to-pay to take full control over wildlife conservation suggests that full devolution doubles the value of CAMPFIRE to the producer communities. Furthermore, our results support the idea that government programmes and development projects should not be imposed on local communities but should be informed by programme beneficiaries through research in order to capture their needs and wants. Finally, our results demonstrate that poachers and those who are generally good at extracting resources from the environment will oppose change.
... The practice is further spurred by the desire to stem the activities of local communities that undermine conservation, such as forest degradation, expanding agricultural frontiers, illegal hunting, logging, firewood collection, and uncontrolled burning [37,38]. Through this practice, visitors would patronize local services and respect the customs of the local communities, while local communities have and exhibit the relevant traditional ecological knowledge that support ecotourism [38][39][40][41] and provide alternative livelihoods strategies [40][41][42]. ...
... The practice is further spurred by the desire to stem the activities of local communities that undermine conservation, such as forest degradation, expanding agricultural frontiers, illegal hunting, logging, firewood collection, and uncontrolled burning [37,38]. Through this practice, visitors would patronize local services and respect the customs of the local communities, while local communities have and exhibit the relevant traditional ecological knowledge that support ecotourism [38][39][40][41] and provide alternative livelihoods strategies [40][41][42]. ...
... The contribution of ecotourism to rural livelihoods and livelihood diversification has received significant research attention [25,27,28,41]. Several studies that employed quantitative approaches have emphasized the role of ecotourism activities as determinants of livelihood outcomes [39][40][41][42]. Some scholars have employed Structural Equation Models (SEM) and Choice Experiments (CE) to analyze tourist preferences around conservation sites [11,25,41]. ...
Ecotourism is increasingly accepted as a suitable alternative for sustaining rural livelihoods. In spite of this trend, quantitative assessments of relationships between household assets and ecotourism choices, and the policy implications thereof, currently account for only a negligible number of studies in sub-Saharan Africa. This paper contributes to this evidence gap by analyzing the extent to which households’ assets drive ecotourism choices on a representative sample of 200 households in Cameroon. The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and the Human Development Index (HDI) were used to construct indices for ecotourism choices. The ordinary least square and logit models were also employed to estimate the effect of various household assets on ecotourism choices. A high preference was observed for the production and sale of arts and crafts items and the promotion of cultural heritage sites as key ecotourism choices. More women are found to participate in conservation education, as opposed to culture-related activities such as arts and crafts. Access to education and training were inversely related to cultural festival promotion. The results suggest the need to: (i) stem the overdependence on conservation sites for wood supply to the arts and crafts sector, (ii) enforce endogenous cultural institutional regulations, including those that increase female participation in guiding future ecotourism choices. This paper contributes to ecotourism development and conservation theory, with regards to unbundling household level predictors of ecotourism choices, and has implications on the design of policies to implement environmentally less-demanding ecotourism activities.
... Land use conflicts are further exacerbated by multiple interests for land use in these rural areas. Wildlife tourism is seen by many development organisations as a potential source of rural economic development and poverty alleviation, particularly in marginal rural areas where agricultural potential is limited (Barnes, 1998;Mahony and Van Zyl, 2002;Muchapondwa, 2003). Although, wildlife often has a complementary role to play in relation to agriculture when it comes to households livelihood diversification (Barnes, 1998;Ashley and LaFranchi, 1997), it directly competes with other land uses (Cousins, 2009;Skonhoft and Schulz, 1996). ...
... Although, wildlife often has a complementary role to play in relation to agriculture when it comes to households livelihood diversification (Barnes, 1998;Ashley and LaFranchi, 1997), it directly competes with other land uses (Cousins, 2009;Skonhoft and Schulz, 1996). For this reason, various stakeholders intending to initiate any rural development projects need to reach a consensus as to what land use option is economically viable, ecologically sustainable and socio-politically acceptable given the context of the communities in question (Colyvan et al., 2011;Muchapondwa, 2003). This is vital because the solutions or strategies to rural development are context bound in most cases. ...
... For example; if we assume that Legata's coalition partner pays Legata to bridge the income gap between year 0 and 5, then the PV of the payment would yield (2008), Magombeyi et al. (2008), Mahony and Van Zyl (2002) and Muchapondwa (2003). Bimonte demonstrated why an unsustainable path may emerge even when both players prefer preservation to exploitation and no free ride incentive exists and continued to addresses some policy issues to prevent the dreaded result that noncooperative behaviour would yield. ...
Optimal use of land in rural areas has the potential to reduce poverty and attain rural economic development. Conservation with tourism benefits could potentially reduce poverty in rural areas where agricultural potential is limited. However, land use conflicts exacerbated by multiple interests for land use are prevalent and can hinder rural development. This paper explored the potential for rural communities to cooperate with each other to establish a conservation project in South Africa. Data were collected through several ways including focused groups and semi structured interviews with forty-six members of three communities which were beneficiaries of the land restitution programme. The study determined benefits from livestock and tourism land uses under different scenarios and interactions of decisions among the three communities were analysed using game theory. The analysis revealed that opting for tourism would allow the communities to earn seven times more than for livestock farming and that development of tourism through their cooperation could constitute a good option for the community development. However for cooperation to work, there would be need to address pressing issues for the communities. Such analysis can assist communities to make informed decisions on alternative sources of income and their related payoffs. Landscape scale management can also benefit from such analysis.
Key words: Land use, tourism development, livestock farming, Moepel farms, game theory.
... In areas where human-elephant conflict is high, elephants are seen as pests/predators (Edwards, 2001) worth eradicating to reduce predation and crop damage which according to Barnes, (2006) could as high as 100% under small scale rain fed agriculture. Also, elephants have emerged as significant competitors for land in rural areas with several evictions reported in areas where Game Parks are created (Muchapondwa, 2003;Redford and Fearn, 2007). Contrary, in other areas elephants have been sustainably exploited under the banner of ecotourism ventures positively contributing to rural livelihoods (Jones and Barnes, 2007;Libanda and Blignaut, 2007). ...
... Most African elephants share boundaries with rural communities presenting several social costs and benefits (Muchapondwa, 2003;Novelli et al. 2006). As a result of their location, these communities have a much greater potential to conserve African elephants (Muchapondwa, 2003) or assist in their extinction (Child et al. 1997), depending on the available shared perceptions (Twyman, 2001). ...
... Most African elephants share boundaries with rural communities presenting several social costs and benefits (Muchapondwa, 2003;Novelli et al. 2006). As a result of their location, these communities have a much greater potential to conserve African elephants (Muchapondwa, 2003) or assist in their extinction (Child et al. 1997), depending on the available shared perceptions (Twyman, 2001). The observed decline in elephant population in Africa (Wesser et al. 2010) suggests errors of commission and omission in the initial elephant conservation policy designthe role of local communities as active stakeholders in elephant conservation policy formulation as inspired by their shared perceptions. ...
Societies share different perceptions with regard to elephant conservation. Evidence suggests that, societies which reside close to elephants share greater obliteration perceptions while the global community, which resides far from elephants, subscribes conservation perceptions. Sadly, policies by the global community (CITES; Governments) to protect African elephants seem to have failed to save them from decimation. Against this background, in this paper, we therefore argue that for purposes of saving African elephants, policies should come from local communities who share boundaries with game parks rather than impositions from the global community. By estimating local communities` perceptions of elephants and their relative influence towards conservation using the multinomial logistic regression model, we were able to expose perceptions that mould local communities towards conservation from those that promote the obliteration pathway. The paper, therefore, concludes that high human-elephant conflict and low revenue from elephant farming may discourage the interests of surrounding communities from the conservation of elephants. On a constructive note, the study suggests that direct, observable, positive returns from elephant proceeds may be used as a conservation promotion incentive for surrounding communities.
... However, the elephant population is dwindling due to increased poaching and resulting changes in ecosystem dynamics. Illegal wildlife hunting is one of the biggest threats challenging the existence of elephants in Zimbabwe and CAMPFIRE (Muchapondwa 2003;Ntuli and Muchapondwa 2017). Continued poaching could drive the elephant population to unprecedented low levels, challenging the recovery of the population and possibly triggering a regime shift in the savannah grassland ecosystem, often referred to as bush encroachment (Biggs et al. 2018). ...
... Despite their significance, the elephant population is dwindling due to a combination of exogenous and endogenous factors. Illegal wildlife harvesting is one of the biggest threats challenging the existence of elephants in Zimbabwe and the CAMPFIRE programme itself (Muchapondwa 2003;Ntuli and Muchapondwa 2017). Continued poaching could drive the elephant population to unprecedented low levels, challenging the recovery of the population and possibly triggering a regime shift in the savannah grassland ecosystem. ...
We investigate the behavioural responses of natural common-pool resource users to three policy interventions—sanctioned quotas, information provisioning, and a combination of both. We focus on situations in which users find utility in multiple resources (pastures and wild animal stocks) that all stem from the same ecosystem with complex dynamics, and management could trigger a regime shift, drastically altering resource regrowth. We performed a framed field experiment with 384 villagers from communities managing common-pool wildlife in Zimbabwe. We find that user groups are likely to manage these natural resources more efficiently when facing a policy intervention (either a sanctioned quota, receiving information about a drastic drop in the stocks’ regrowth below a threshold, or a combination of both), compared to groups facing no intervention. A sanctioned quota is likely to perform better than providing information about the existence of a threshold. However, having information about the threshold also leads to higher efficiency and fewer depletion cases, compared to a situation without any intervention. The main contribution of this study is to provide insights that can inform policymakers and development practitioners about the performance of concrete and feasible policy interventions for community wildlife conservation in Southern Africa.
... Zimbabwe is a pioneering country in the communal area management programme for indigenous resources known by the acronym-CAMPFIRE (Taylor 2009). According to Muchapondwa (2003) The CAMPFIRE program in Zimbabwe, praised for its sustainable community-managed use of wildlife, has also shown failures because of, inter alia, difficult relationships with the state over land and resource ownership (Muchapondwa 2003 ...
... Zimbabwe is a pioneering country in the communal area management programme for indigenous resources known by the acronym-CAMPFIRE (Taylor 2009). According to Muchapondwa (2003) The CAMPFIRE program in Zimbabwe, praised for its sustainable community-managed use of wildlife, has also shown failures because of, inter alia, difficult relationships with the state over land and resource ownership (Muchapondwa 2003 ...
The objective of this household-based study was to explore factors that affect the adoption of agroforestry (AF) technology in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. Contrary to what is known about most of the countries in the Southern African (SADC) region, the practice of agro forestry (AF) is not well developed in South Africa. This problem is directly related to the dualistic nature of the agriculture sector in the country, and this fact has led to bias against smallholder farmers. The Eastern Cape Province was selected for the study due to its vast potential for agricultural development in general, and AF practices in particular. Quantitative data was collected from Tsolo and Lusikisiki Magisterial Districts of the Eastern Cape Province by use of a pre-tested, validated and standardized questionnaire. In addition to quantitative data, qualitative data was gathered by use of in-depth interviews and personal observations. The design of the study was cross-sectional, descriptive and co-relational. The sample size of study was 300 households. Simple random sampling was used as a sampling technique. Sampling frames were obtained from Statistics South Africa for the purpose of selecting eligible households for the survey. Quantitative data analysis was performed by using statistical methods; such as cross-tab analysis, logit regression, and log-linear analysis.
The rationale of the study is that a significant proportion of the South African population (close to 38%, according to World Bank Report 2012) live in rural part of the country from which 72% live below the poverty line. The Eastern Cape is one of the poorest provinces of the country. The study was aimed at the promotion of AF technology as a means of alleviating poverty and promoting sustainable development among the rural population. A review of the literature shows that AF can contribute for sustainable rural development in South African provinces where the predominant means of livelihood is rural subsistence farming and agriculture. AF technologies comply with environmental guidelines while enabling subsistence and small-scale farmers to improve their yield per plot of land. As such, the broader theme of the study was about the effective utilization of natural resources for the promotion of AF technologies among rural farmers. Although AF technology has been shown to have the potential for improving productivity and livelihood among rural farmers in most of the World’s developing nations, very little effort has been made in South Africa irrespective of the vast potential of AF technologies. The survey was aimed at drawing attention to the potential of AF technologies in the context of the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The study was based on empirical evidence gathered from households who stand to benefit from the adoption and promotion of AF technologies. The aims and objectives of the study are consistent with the strategic priorities of the South African Department of Agriculture & Forestry and Department Rural Development.
Data were collected on a large number of biophysical, socioeconomic and institutional factors that affect the sub sector. Examples of such factors are economic incentives, quantity of yield, type of plot, size of plot, type of technologies used for improving agricultural productivity, hazardous conditions, environmental factors such as land and soil degradation, overgrazing, overpopulation of herds, farming skills, duration of experience, soil fertility and slope, biophysical conditions, risk and uncertainty, household preferences, resource endowments, and the role of institutions and incentive mechanisms provided to farmers. This study aimed at verifying the veracity of induced-technology theory and diffusion of innovation theory proposed by (Scherr 2002; Rogers 2003; Mercer 2004; and Kabwe 2010). These theories argue that utilization of modern agricultural technologies have the potential for improving agricultural productivity. The study aims to examine the applicability of these theories on the adoption of AF technologies and whether the use of AF technologies has the potential for improving the livelihood of rural subsistence farmers.
The study found that 72.3% of the 300 farmers who took part in the survey adopted and practiced AF technologies. Results obtained from multiple linear regression analysis showed that average household income increased as a function of utilization of AF technologies at the household level (P=0.0000; average amount of increase in household income = 320 Rand out of an average of R1000 household income). Results obtained from logit regression showed that the adoption of AF technologies was significantly influenced by 5 factors among others. These 5 factors were slope of land (odds ratio (OR) =10.329), pace of adoption (OR=5.107), exposure to other agricultural technologies (OR=4.988), farming experience (OR=4.48), and access to credit (OR=2.317), in a decreasing order of strength. Based on findings obtained from the study, a recommendation has been made to the Eastern Cape Provincial Department of Agriculture and Forestry, recommending that an economic incentive should be provided to farmers practicing AF technologies by way of improving the quality and coverage of extension work, increasing the amount of credit available to AF users, and by providing door-to-door education to uneducated farmers.
Keywords: Agroforestry, Adoption, Eastern Cape, Smallholder farmers, Logit regression
... Thus far, as African elephants are allowed to exist, they generate social costs as well as potential benefits in the form of ecotourism revenue [5]- [7]. With that background, the paper argues that rural households have a much greater potential to conserve African elephants [6] or assist in their extinction [8], depending on the perceived balance between social costs and potential benefits they derive from elephants. Thus far, available PAC measures normally characterised by "guards, guns and fences" have proved to be expensive and sometimes ineffective towards separating the two species (humans and elephants). ...
... High humanelephant conflicts are reported in most rural African communities [6], [9], [14]. This is largely true in cases where elephants cause property damage, invade crop lands, and cause human and livestock predation while offering minimum direct benefits to local communities. ...
Human-elephant conflicts in most African countries coincide in areas where poverty and natural resources are most profound. Although popularly believed to be an asset capable of generating consumptive and non-consumptive ecotourism revenue, African elephants are in some parts of Africa viewed as pests and predators worth eradicating as a result of high human-elephant conflicts (crop raiding, property damage, human and livestock predation). This has shifted the conservation debate to issues of how much biodiversity (elephants) can be saved in the face of suffering local communities. With that background, we tested the income and conservation premise of the biological bee-fence concept as a complementary problem animal control (PAC) measure from a rural setting where elephants interact with local poor communities using bio-economic simulations. We conclude that the biological bee-fence concept has a significant potential to deter elephants from invading surrounding communities' fields as well as generating the much needed household income. These findings reinforce the conservation and income premise of the biological bee-fence under a typical African rural setting worth up-scaling.
... One example of CBNRM is the Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE) in Zimbabwe, which was instituted by the government during the mid-1980s as a benefit-sharing scheme involving local communities. Previous studies have described the CAMPFIRE programme as a role model for CBNRM in Southern Africa (Murombedzi 1999;Logan and Moseley 2002;Muchapondwa 2003;and Balint and Mashinya 2006). The fundamental idea behind such initiatives is that benefits from wildlife conservation should strengthen the incentives of local people in such a way that they treat wildlife as a valuable asset (Songorwa 1999;Songorwa 2000;and Balint and Mashinya 2006). ...
... 7 In practice, CAMPFIRE communities have generally complained that the quota does not change much and seems irresponsive to stock dynamics. This perception could be true, as quotas for selective or trophy hunting do not change much (Muchapondwa 2003). For simplicity, we assume the fixed quotas rule i i h h = , which reflects the behaviour of an agency that is understaffed and does not dare take new initiatives (Fischer et al. 2011). ...
This paper uses a bioeconomic model to analyse wildlife conservation in two habitats adjacent to a national park by two types of communities in the context of Southern Africa. One community is made up of peasant farmers operating under a benefit-sharing scheme (CAMPFIRE) while the other is made up of commercial farmers practising game farming in a conservancy (the Save Valley Conservancy). Both communities exploit wildlife by selling hunting licenses to foreign hunters but with different levels of success. The park agency plays a central role by authorizing the harvest quota for each community. We formulate a bioeconomic model for the three agents, optimize the market problem for each agent and compare the outcomes with the social planner’s solution. Our results show that the level of anti-poaching enforcement by the park agency is suboptimal, while anti-poaching effort exerted by the conservancy community achieves social optimality. CAMPFIRE communities exert more poaching effort than what the social planner would recommend. Our model shows that an improvement in community institutions might have a significant impact on growth of the wildlife stock through their role in constraining behaviour. Thus, institutional reforms in benefit-sharing schemes such as CAMPFIRE could result in the local community behaving like game farming communities such as the Save Valley Conservancy.
... Scholars and practitioners have followed outcomes in CAMPFIRE closely, both across Zimbabwe and in Mahenye and Nyaminyami in particular. CAMPFIRE in general has been studied repeatedly because it was one of the first examples of national level CBNRM (Alexander & McGregor 2000;Chaumba et al. 2003;Derman 1995;Logan & Moseley 2002;Muchapondwa 2003;Newsham 2002). The project in Nyaminyami rural district attracted the interest of researchers for two reasons. ...
... Independence also provided the government of Zimbabwe the opportunity to remove past discrimination and extend to communal areas the wildlife management privileges accorded to private landowners in colonial times. To this end, the government in 1982 amended the 1975 Parks and Wildlife Act to grant Appropriate Authority for wildlife management to rural district governments as representatives of the communities (Metcalfe 1994;Muchapondwa 2003;Murombedzi 1999;Murphree 2004). This authority is now held by rural district councils, created in 1988 when the Rural District Councils Act amalgamated district councils and rural councils to form the RDCs. ...
... Wildlife benefits can be a more stable source of income than agriculture. In many of the arid and semiarid environments, rural farmers' production activities are characterized by uncertainty due to unpredictable climatic conditions [12,13]. Under such conditions wildlife utilization becomes a highly competitive form of land use [14] and could diversify and consequently reduce drought risk. ...
... This notion has also promoted recent conservation development paradigms called Transfrontier Conservation Areas (TFCAs) or mega-parks that cross international borders [58]. The rationale is that adding wildlife conservation as a land use could diversify and consequently reduce risk [12]. Results from this study have shown that such initiatives (TFCAs) may improve the livelihoods of those living around them, particularly their ability to cope with drought risk, depending on the profitability of irrigated agriculture. ...
This paper presents modeling approaches for wildlife conservation in a semi-arid savanna setting where there are frequent occurrences of drought. The model was used to test the extent to which wildlife income offers opportunities to reduce fluctuations in income as a result of variations in annual rainfall. For the application of the model the wildlife and agro-pastoral systems of southeastern Zimbabwe were simulated. Results show that wildlife income has the potential to compensate for some of the losses in expected income from livestock during droughts. However, wildlife income becomes second best to irrigated agriculture in stabilizing income in areas that show highly fluctuating rainfall. Possible reasons for this include high costs of exploiting the wildlife resource, and the small fraction of wildlife revenues received by households and communities. In order to search for sustainable solutions in areas such as the southeastern low veld of Zimbabwe, it is also important to be aware that the current human population and livestock densities are far above current sustainable levels. Our results therefore suggest that current and future efforts to conserve biodiversity are doomed to fail if there are no efforts made to decongest areas surrounding parks of high densities of human and herbivore populations, and to let local households earn more revenues from wildlife.
... It is assumed that the high level of education of respondents would lead to extraction of fewer forest products since education opens up alternative employment opportunities and diverts people from subsistence livelihoods activities such as the gathering of forest products from the forest reserves. This corroborates the findings of Muchapondwa (2003) and Newton et al. (2016) that the level of education attained by the household head is expected to influence the nature of his/her economic activity and consequently the level of his/her income. Furthermore, education would make it easier for households to comprehend negative externalities and passive user values of natural resources. ...
This study assessed willingness of communities to participate in forest conservation in Ondo State, Nigeria. The study specifically described the socioeconomic characteristics of respondents in the study area; evaluated the perception of the respondents about forest conservation; and identified factors that influenced the respondents' willingness to participate in forest conservation in the study area. A multi-stage sampling technique was employed to select 200 respondents. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Likert Scale and Double-bounded Logit Model. Findings revealed that the average age of the respondents were 42 years indicating they were in their active age and most (49.5%) of them had secondary education. Findings also revealed that respondents agreed that forest protection programmes are necessary to sustain the forest reserve with a mean score of 4.7. The double-bounded logit regression model showed that the amount offered as incentive (bid amount), age, marital status, income and distance of respondents' home to the forests were factors that significantly influenced the respondents' willingness to participate in forest protection. It is therefore recommended that incentives, such as a monetary value, should be placed on forest resource conservation to ensure the willingness of community members to participate conservation to engender continued provision of goods and services by the forests.
... This implies that the majority of the respondents had formal education and it is expected that education would provide people with opportunities to access information, enable them to adopt one or more innovative practices, and understand the advantages of conserving forest resources in the study area. This corroborates the findings of Muchapondwa (2003) and Newton et al. (2016) household head is expected to influence the nature of his/her economic activity and consequently the level of his/her income, also education would make it easier for households to comprehend negative externalities and passive user values of natural resources (Kadilikansimba et al., 2023). ...
This study examines community participation in forest conservation in Ondo State, Nigeria, exploring the socio-economic dynamics and the effectiveness of decentralized forest management. Amidst escalating environmental degradation and forest depletion, this research highlights the critical role local communities’ play in the stewardship of forest reserves. Data were collected through surveys, interviews, and field observations involving 200 households across multiple communities adjacent to forest reserves. The findings reveal a strong community willingness to engage in forest conservation, with a substantial proportion of respondents prepared to accept financial incentives to aid in conservation efforts. The study also uncovers a significant correlation between socioeconomic factors—such as income levels, educational attainment, and proximity to forests—and the willingness to participate in conservation initiatives. Despite the readiness to support forest preservation, the research identifies a glaring lack of awareness and involvement in existing forest conservation programs. It is recommended that enhanced community education on the benefits of forest conservation, the introduction of more robust economic incentives, increased community involvement in conservation decision-making, and the strengthening of legal frameworks to protect forest resources. These steps are essential for sustainable forest management and biodiversity conservation in the area, which could serve as a model for similar regions globally.
... The CAMPFIRE programme has been studied repeatedly due to the fact that it was one of the first examples of Community Based Natural Resources Management (CBNRM) initiatives, to the extent that it has served as a model for many countries (Derman, 1995;Newsham, 2002;Muchapondwa, 2003). It devolves authority to the communities in a way that privileges the rights and concerns of the rural poor over those of powerful political, and economic elites (Bryand & Jarosz, 2004). ...
This study exposes the untold success story of Zimbabwe's ecotourism projects. Literature is awash with publications on the failure by Zimbabwe to come up with, and run sustainable ecotourism projects that significantly benefit the community with very little or no effort being put on telling the positive side of the ecotourism story. It is against this background that the researchers, using an exploratory design, investigated the story of the Ngamo CAMPFIRE project in Tsholotsho to establish the nature, and extent of its contribution to the environmental, socio-cultural and economic well-being of the local community. A qualitative research methodology was adopted which involved interviews with key informants (headman, Rural District Council [RDC] representative, headmaster), and panel discussions with local residents. The study revealed that indeed tourism has significantly impacted on the livelihoods of people in Tsholotsho especially in the Ngamo settlements which share a boundary with Hwange National Park. The key benefits include the construction of schools, employment, and training of local guides, scholarship programs, to mention just a few. The researchers recommended that other CAMPFIRE projects take a leaf from this project.
... In addition, education makes it easier for households to comprehend negative externalities and passive user values of natural resources [ 43 ]. As such, decisions pertaining to riverbank cultivation, where behavior was mostly influenced by the education level of households. ...
... The average number of years spent in school is about 6years thus more than half of the respondents can read and write, thus the need for higher exploitation of forest products. However, households with higher level of education could be exposed to diverse employment opportunities and thus less dependencies in exploiting NTFPs [Muchapondwa (2003), Newton et al. (2016)]. ...
This study analyzed the economic importance of Non-timber forest product to rural poverty alleviation in Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo state in 2014. Multistage sampling technique was used to collect data from 120 respondents in the study area. The data collected was subjected to both descriptive and inferential analysis. Descriptive statistics include the use of percentages, tables and mean to present the socioeconomic characteristics. This study estimates the important contribution of NTFP to income and livelihood as well as the role and benefits of NTFP. Furthermore, a Tobit model is estimated as determining the factors influencing share of NTFP in income. Also, Logistic regression was used to present the determinants of share from NTFP. Majority (67.5%) of the farmers in this study area were male with a mean age of 42.93 and standard deviation of 10.02, greater percentage (79.17%) of the farmers were native of the area. More than half (56.7%) of the farmers (respondents) had access to land through inheritance, 36.67% of the respondents were within the age range of 41-50 years which formed the majority and active force of the respondents. Six independent variables that significantly contributed to the dependent variable (Income from NTFP) in the Tobit regression model were; number of hours of collecting NTFP, transportation cost, male age greater than 10years, income from livestock production, income from offfarm activities and income from crop production. Education level and size of land was found to be positive contributor to the dependent variable (Poverty status) in the Logistic regression. It is recommended that policies and strategies that aim at improving the welfare of rural people and natural resource conservation should give attention to t he contribution of NTFP to the local people. Moreover, Government and NGOs should support and encourage NTFP and NTFP based activities as part of the diversified livelihood strategies in order to alleviate poverty in the rural areas. There should also be p roper monitoring and prevention of unnecessary deforestation by government agencies from government reserved area so as to avert the going into extinction of some species / varieties of trees or NTFP
... Empowering farmers to implement simple farm-based but cost-effective measures [16] could be a particularly successful alternative to mitigate conflicts in African wildlife corridors. In these areas, conservation programs are necessary for the maintenance of wildlife meta-population processes [17] and connectivity [18]; however, wildlife shares land and resources with rural communities, triggering important social costs [19]. Although government and private financial support is frequently scarce, it is already known that affected farmers are more willing to accept changes they have chosen themselves [20,21]. ...
Simple Summary
Local communities living on the edge of protected areas often experience negative impacts on their livelihoods due to wildlife. These situations threaten support for long-term conservation of wildlife and wild habitats so a key for conservation sustainability should be based on implementing socially accepted and economically sustainable mitigation practices. For successful design and implementation of mitigation strategies, it is vital to engage local communities and understand their preferences and previous experiences. In this study, we present a choice experiment as a tool to analyze local farmer preferences for the most common farm-based solutions to reduce African elephant crop damage. Results show that there are significant differences among responses triggered by farmers’ previous experience with elephants and socioeconomic situation, with a marked spatial distribution among respondents. This methodology, based on a choice modeling approach considering the differential availability of resources and previous experience with elephants or other wildlife, is highly applicable, with small changes in other areas where wildlife competes with local communities for resources. This approach also represents a suitable instrument for identifying stakeholders’ preferences in each specific context.
Abstract
Local communities surrounding wildlife corridors and natural reserves often face challenges related to human–wildlife coexistence. To mitigate the challenges and ensure the long-term conservation of wildlife, it is important to engage local communities in the design of conservation strategies. By conducting 480 face-to-face interviews in 30 villages along and adjacent to the Selous-Niassa Wildlife Corridor (Tanzania), we quantified farmers’ preferences for farm-based measures to mitigate African elephant damage using choice experiments. Results show that farmers considered no action the least preferred option, revealing that they are open to trying different measures. The most preferred management strategy matched with the preferences of wildlife rangers in the area, suggesting low concern about the potential conflicts between stakeholders. However, a latent class model suggests that there are significant differences among responses triggered by farmers’ previous experience with elephants, the intensity of the elephant damage, and the socioeconomic situation of the farmer. Results show a marked spatial distribution among respondents, highlighting the benefits of zone management as conflicts were found to be highly context dependent. Understanding the human dimension of conservation is essential for the successful planification and implementation of conservation strategies. Therefore, the development and broad utilization of methodologies to gather specific context information should be encouraged.
... Therefore, ecotourism is spurred as a strategy to promote local people's involvement in conservation activities. Also, ecotourism development is considered a solution to stem the activities that undermine conservation, such as forest degradation, expanding agricultural frontiers, illegal hunting, logging, firewood collection, and uncontrolled burning [15]. ...
This study was conducted to reinforce the hypothesis that ecotourism in Quang Loi commune’s lagoon created differences in income and lagoon resource protection of different beneficiary groups. Data was collected through secondary sources, 3 key informant interviews and interviews of 62 households in three household groups: tourism service, fishing, and aquaculture households. The results reveal that ecotourism services in Quang Loi commune started in 2010 and thrive since 2017, relying on the advantages of the local natural resources. Local community organized and provided tourism services such as: sightseeing on the lagoon, fishing experience, dining and accommodation, and some other services. By joining such services, labors in ecotourism service households earned 39.07 million VND/ year, which significant contributed to improve household’s income. Ecotourism service households, therefore, had higher income than that of fishing group and aquaculture group (85.15 compared to 72.29 and 60 million VND, respectively; p value < 0.05). The lagoon environmental protection activities such as: lagoon night patrol, waste collection, propaganda and advocating for lagoon environmental protection, etc. were paid more attention by the local community since the development of ecotourism. Similarly, there was a significant higher participation time of tourism service households in the above activities in comparison with the rest groups (p value < 0.05). The lagoon environment and resources was assessed to be improved by local residents. This result implicates that ecotourism development is a suitable strategy to improve the local people's livelihood and Tam Giang lagoon resources protection currently.
... There are also several smaller areas across the country where wildlife species are kept in enclosed structures for purposes of captive breeding, re-habilitation, education, and research. Wildlife based tourism has also benefited the country through trophy hunting, game viewing, job creation, travel, and hospitality (Muchapondwa, 2003). These wildlife areas host wildlife species that are known to be affected by viral diseases such as rabies, avian influenza, and rift valley fever (Kock, 2005). ...
The COVID-19 pandemic is fast driving the ways of life and economies. In this study, we used Zimbabwe as a case study to assess how different forms of media are being utilised to access information of the COVID-19 disease (across age, educational level, and employment status). We investigated people's perceptions of the origins of COVID-19, its implication on the continued consumption of meat from wildlife species by humans, and management strategies of wildlife species that harbour the coronavirus. We gathered 139 responses using an online structured questionnaire survey. Social media platforms were used to acquire information on the COVID-19 pandemic when compared to traditional sources (television, radio, and newspapers). Most respondents thought that the COVID-19 virus was created by humans (n ¼ 55, mostly the young and middle-aged) while others believed that it originated from animals (n ¼ 54, mostly middle-aged with postgraduate qualifications). The majority (73%) of respondents who cited COVID-19 origin as animals also supported a ban on consumption of meat from the species. The middle-aged respondents (in comparison to the young and older respondents) and those who were employed (compared to the unemployed) were more likely to support the ban in wildlife trade. The likelihood of visiting wildlife centres given the consequences of COVID-19 was significantly lower in the old-aged respondents when compared to the young and the middle-aged respondents. Our results emphasize the need for science to penetrate social media circles to provide appropriate information. The observed perceptions about visiting wildlife centres could negatively impact conservation funding.
... In the past, schemes to compensate local communities for their proactive role in conservation or their losses from conservation have been inadequate, leading increasingly to community apathy towards community-based conservation activities (Adams and Infield 2003;Fischer, Muchapondwa, and Sterner 2011). When local communities benefit from their conservation efforts, there is a double dividend: conservation wins, and so do sustainable rural livelihoods (Muchapondwa 2003). The call for sustainable financing for protected areas is in many ways a call for more action on the people-oriented national objectives to which African governments are increasingly paying more attention. ...
National park agencies in Africa often lack incentives to maximize revenue, despite the decline in conservation subsidies from the State. We explore the potential of pricing policy to generate funds for extensive conservation. We estimate recreation demand by international tourists for a popular South African park, calculate the consumer surplus and find the revenue-maximizing entrance fee. Our results suggest substantial underpricing and therefore significant forgone income. By charging low fees at popular parks despite increasing conservation mandates and declining conservation subsidies, national parks in developing countries are forgoing substantial revenue crucial for combating widespread biodiversity losses.
... From a moral point of view, people do not feel ashamed when they harvest firewood and do not even consider it as an environmental crime (Ntuli and Muchapondwa 2017). Child and Child (2015), Goldman (2011), Muchapondwa (2003 and Songorwa et al. (2000) argue that wildlife benefits create the necessary incentives for wildlife conservation through their role in promoting and shaping the way people view wildlife and rules governing the park. Balint and Mashinya (2006) argue that wildlife benefits derived by local communities in Southern Africa are too small to achieve such impacts suggesting that there is a threshold that is unknown to authorities and if benefits were to increase, or reach this point, then people's perceptions would change. ...
Local communities’ perceptions of protected areas are important determinants of the success of conservation efforts in Southern Africa, as these perceptions affect people’s attitudes and behaviour with respect to conservation. As a result, the involvement of local communities in transboundary wildlife conservation is now viewed as an integral part of regional development initiatives. Building on unique survey data and applying regression analysis, this paper investigates the determinants of the perceptions of local communities around the Great Limpopo Trans-frontier Conservation Area in Zimbabwe and South Africa. Our results illustrate that people perceiving the park as well-managed tend to have more positive perceptions regarding the benefits from the park, rules governing the park, and wildlife conservation in general. Household expertise on resource extraction, in turn, tends to make people more likely to perceive environmental crime as morally acceptable. Furthermore, the results indicate that if people perceive the rules of the park in a negative way, then they are less likely to conserve wildlife. Receiving benefits from the park has a positive impact on people’s perceptions of the rules governing the park, as well as on their perception of wildlife conservation in general, but not on perceptions about environmental crime. Surprisingly, perceived high levels of corruption is positively associated with people’s perception of wildlife benefits and with perceptions of that environmental crime is morally justified. There is also evidence of the role of socioeconomic variables on people’s perceptions towards wildlife. However, unobservable contextual factors could be responsible for explaining part of the variation in people’s perceptions. Our results speak to the literature on large-scale collective action since perceptions of wildlife benefits, corruption, environmental crime, park management and rules governing the parks, all affect local communities’ ability and willingness to self organize. These variables are interesting because they can be influenced by policy through training and awareness campaigns.
... In essence, education would make it easier for households to comprehend negative externalities and passive user values of natural resources. Ideally, decisions pertaining to fisheries resource utilization are expected to be influenced by education level of households (Muchapondwa, 2003). ...
There is an old notion that taste of fish caught from Chia Lagoon is different from fish in the adjacent Lake Malawi - two water bodies separated by a sand bar and connected by a short river. This study attempted to determine if this perception could be explained by
the type of food in the two water bodies. Proximate composition of fish from the two water bodies was analyzed to establish if taste variations between the two populations of fish were due to diet. Water quality was also assessed. Mean moisture, crude protein, crude fat, ash and pH for the fish were 92.02±0.18, 63.71±0.26, 22.23±0.41, 16.35±0.79, 6.31±0.31; 92.04±0.19, 62.84±0.16, 20.80±0.47, 19.10±0.26, 6.35±0.78 respectively, for Chia Lagoon and Lake Malawi. Significantly higher Chlorophyll “a” levels (0.57μg/g), and soluble reactive phosphorous (SRP, 62.28 μg/g), were reported for Chia Lagoon than Lake Malawi (0.31μg/g), (3.82μg/g) (P<0.05) respectively. Chia Lagoon contains twice as much zooplankton as Lake Malawi. Study results suggest a higher nutrient composition of fish from Chia Lagoon than those from Lake Malawi supported by richness in primary productivity. It is concluded that the taste differences between the Tilapia fish of the two water bodies could be linked to the type of food. It is suggested that the effect of seasonal variability in natural food on proximate composition of fish should also be studied to establish a comprehensive tropho-dynamic model of the two water bodies.
... The present study differs from Lapeyre (2011) and Mbaiwa and Stronza (2010) in that it is the first cross-country analysis of tourism staff spending and the sample size is much larger. Many studies ( Bandyopadhyay, Shysamsundar, Wang, & Humavindu, 2004;Barnes, MacGregor, & Weaver, 2001;Mbaiwa, 2003;Muchapondwa, 2003;Muchapondwa & Stage, 2013;Turpie et al., 2006) have looked at the economic impacts of tourism, but the majority have been focused on one country and many have looked only at the impact in terms of the overall income earned from tourism, through GDP, tourism receipts and concession payments. Although Lepper and Goebel (2010) stated that the real significance of ecotourism employment to poverty reduction and livelihood diversification is only fully realised when one considers the "trickle down" of cash income, first to supported family members and then to the greater community, very few studies have looked specifically at the impact of tourism staff spending at the household level. ...
Tourism is frequently put forward as a means to promote conservation and development. Numerous studies focus on tourists’ and tourism industry spending, but very few have looked at tourism staff spending. This paper examines spending patterns of 385 tourism staff in six southern African countries. The analysis includes understanding how much staff are spending, what factors impact on their spending and the local economic impacts of this spending in remote, rural areas. A comparison with 1400 respondents who are not working in tourism (non-staff) highlights the potential indirect multiplier effects and where rural households are spending their income. The results show that tourism staff are spending, on average, more than other community members (non-staff) and that a large percentage of their spending is local and has important positive impacts on other households, highlighting the wider importance of tourism employment, beyond simple job creation and the increased potential benefit-sharing from tourism, through staff spending. Promoting the use of local suppliers of goods and services would increase these induced impacts further. Future research should focus on further rounds of tourism staff spending to determine the full development impact.
... In essence, education would make it easier for households to comprehend negative externalities and passive user values of natural resources. Ideally, decisions pertaining to fisheries resource utilization are expected to be influenced by education level of households (Muchapondwa, 2003). ...
... The level of education attained by the household head is expected to influence the nature of his/her economic activity and consequently the level of his/her income. This is because education would make it easier for households to comprehend negative externalities and passive user values of natural resources (Muchapondwa 2003;Newton et al. 2016). It is assumed that the high level of education of respondents would lead to extraction of fewer forest products since education opens up alternative employment opportunities and diverts people from subsistence livelihoods activities such as the gathering of NTFPs from the forest reserve (Shively and Pagiola 1999;Newton et al. 2016). ...
Introduction: In the recent decades, there has been growing interest in the contribution of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) to livelihoods, development, and poverty alleviation among the rural populace. This has been prompted by the fact that communities living adjacent to forest reserves rely to a great extent on the NTFPs for their livelihoods, and therefore any effort to conserve such resources should as a prerequisite understand how the host communities interact with them. Methods: Multistage sampling technique was used for the study. A representative sample of 400 households was used to explore the utilization of NTFPs and their contribution to households’ income in communities proximate to Falgore Game Reserve (FGR) in Kano State, Nigeria. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression analysis were used to analyze and summarize the data collected. Results: The findings reveal that communities proximate to FGR mostly rely on the reserve for firewood, medicinal herbs, fodder, and fruit nuts for household use and sales. Income from NTFPs accounts for 20–60% of the total income of most (68%) of the sampled households. The utilization of NTFPs was significantly influenced by age, sex, household size, main occupation, distance to forest and market. Conclusions: The findings suggest that NTFPs play an important role in supporting livelihoods, and therefore provide an important safety net for households throughout the year particularly during periods of hardship occasioned by drought. It is suggested that stakeholders should prioritize technical and financial support programs on agricultural value addition and handcrafts that would promote off-farm income generating activities, in addition, provision of alternative domestic cooking energy such as biogas in communities proximate to FGR in order to reduce pressure relating to fuelwood gathering from the forest, this will help to improve forest resources quality.
... While economic studies on the impact of ecotourism are numerous (e.g. Barnes et al., 2001; Bandyopadhyay et al., 2004; Muchapondwa, 2003; Turpie et al., 2006), the majority are confined to one country, and sometimes two. ...
Tourism has become an increasingly complex phenomenon, with political, economic, social, cultural, educational, biophysical, ecological and aesthetic dimensions. In order for tourism to be sustainable it must
bring direct, as well as indirect, benefits to host communities. The aim is to provide an important means and motivation for communities to care for and maintain their natural and cultural heritage and cultural practices. In this process, there are diverse challenges, as well as opportunities, facing communities developing or engaging in tourism. This chapter provides a framework to assist communities in developing tourism in
their area effectively, efficiently, equitably and sustainably.
... While economic studies on the impact of ecotourism are numerous (e.g. Barnes et al., 2001;Bandyopadhyay et al., 2004;Muchapondwa, 2003;Turpie et al., 2006), the majority are confined to one country, and sometimes two. ...
Rural African communities are largely characterised by high levels of unemployment and poverty, low skills levels and a heavy reliance on natural resources. Increasing populations, together with the impacts of climate change, are putting pressure on natural resources and the issue of sustainable land use is becoming critically important. Ecotourism is one possible sustainable land use which can also assist with both local socioeconomic development and biodiversity conservation. This paper looks at the impact of ecotourism employment on rural household incomes and overall social welfare in six southern African countries. Extensive socio-economic interview schedules were conducted in camps run by Wilderness Safaris in Botswana, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. A total of 385 staff interviews were conducted in 16 high-end ecotourism camps, constituting a majority of the staff in these camps. A further 1400 community interviews were conducted in over 30 rural communities associated with these ecotourism camps. Two types of community members are differentiated in this study: those directly employed in a high-end ecotourism operation (staff) and those not employed in the high-end ecotourism operation (non-staff). For every camp, both groups of respondents were from the same community, living either in or around the protected area where the ecotourism operation was situated; allowing for comparisons between the two groups. The results show that rural households are relying heavily on the market economy, largely in the form of ecotourism, for support and highlight ecotourism employment’s important role in local socio-economic development in remote, rural areas. The results also highlight the importance of formal education, livelihood diversification and other formal employment in these areas. Suggestions for increasing the benefits to local communities are put forward.
... The role of government and the peoples' demographic pattern in regulating community-based natural resources management is being questioned, both from pragmatic and ethical viewpoints of sustainability of enhancing natural resources management (Muchapondwa, 2003;Mugabe, 2004). Devolution over local natural resource management is clearly crafted in the case of wildlife in Zimbabwe, through the Communal Area Management Programme for Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE) (Jones and Murphree, 2001;Muboko and Murindagomo, 2014), a programme which grants appropriate authority to rural district councils underpinned by Zimbabwe's Parks *Corresponding authors: E-mail: egandiwa@gmail.com ...
We assessed the participation of local people in community-based natural resources management under the Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE) in southern Zimbabwe. We focused on four randomly selected CAMPFIRE communities surrounding Gonarezhou National Park. Data were collected in October 2013 through semi-structured questionnaires administered through interviews. Our results showed that there were significantly more men than women in the CAMPFIRE committees. Surprisingly, we recorded that no youths, those below the age of 25 years, were part of the CAMPFIRE committees. CAMPFIRE committee members across the study area were within the age range of 25–60 years. We therefore recommend that: (i) youths should be deliberately included in management committees focussing on natural resources conservation, and (ii) conservation awareness and education needs to be streamlined and enhanced to improve attitudes of both the elderly and youths toward community-based natural resources management initiatives.
... It is possible, for example, that revenues from hunting and employment in tourism could be outweighed by crop losses and the opportunity cost of alternative uses of the land. For example, Muchapondwa (2003) finds little evidence of poverty alleviation from the CAMPFIRE project in Zimbabwe. On the other hand, Bandyopadhyay et al. (2009) find some household economic gains from the community conservancies in Namibia. ...
Game Management Areas in Zambia aim to combine nature conservation with economic empowerment of rural households. This study determines the impact of community-based wildlife management and participation in related community institutions on household welfare. The results indicate that the gains from living in Game Management Areas and from participating in natural resource management are large but unevenly distributed. Only Game Management Areas with limited alternative livelihoods exhibit significant consumption benefits. However, the gains accrue mainly to the relatively well off, while the poor do not gain even if they participate. The results also show that infrastructure development does not necessarily translate into household level consumption gains in the short run. The design of community-based natural resource management programmes needs to respond to the inherent diversity among both the national parks and the community members. There is a need to address impediments to effective participation by the majority of the community members.
... Recently, however, there has been an increase in research on bushmeat hunting and illegal trade in Southern Africa171819. In addition, several authors have also documented an established hunting culture that points to regular consumption of wild animals for food in Zimbabwe2021222324. ...
Illegal hunting of wildlife is a major issue in today’s society, particularly in tropical ecosystems. In this study, a total of 114 local residents from eight villages located in four wards adjacent to the northern Gonarezhou National Park, south-eastern Zimbabwe were interviewed in 2009, using semi-structured questionnaires. The study aimed to answer the following questions: (i) what is the prevalence of illegal hunting and what are commonly used hunting methods? (ii) Which wild animal species are commonly hunted illegally? (iii) What are the main reasons for illegal hunting? (iv) What strategies or mechanisms are currently in place to minimize illegal hunting? Overall, 59% of the respondents reported that they saw bushmeat, meat derived from wild animals, and/or wild animal products being sold at least once every six months, whereas 41% of the respondents reported that they had never seen bushmeat and/or wild animal products being sold in their villages and/or wards. About 18% of the respondents perceived that illegal hunting had increased between 2000 and 2008, whereas 62% of the respondents perceived that illegal hunting had declined, and 20% perceived that it remained the same. Snaring (79%) and hunting with dogs (53%) were reportedly the most common hunting methods. A total of 24 wild animal species were reportedly hunted, with African buffalo (Syncerus caffer) (18%), Burchell’s zebra (Equus quagga) (21%), kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros) (25%) and impala (Aepyceros melampus) (27%) amongst the most targeted and preferred animal species. In addition, large carnivores, including spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta) (11%), leopard (Panthera pardus) (10%) and African lion (Panthera leo) (8%), were reportedly hunted illegally. The need for bushmeat, for household consumption (68%), and raising money through selling of wild animal products (55%) were reported as being the main reasons for illegal hunting. Strengthening law enforcement, increasing awareness and environmental education, and developing mechanisms to reduce human-wildlife conflicts will assist in further minimizing illegal hunting activities in the Gonarezhou ecosystem.
... CBNRM in Namibia (Libanda & Blignaut, 2007), and in Botswana, involve both non-consumptive and consumptive tourism, but in Zimbabwe's CAMPFIRE programme, over 80 per cent of income derives from trophy hunting, which in the 1990s was dominated by elephant values (Bond, 1994;1999). This figure seems to have risen above 90 per cent in recent years (Muchapondwa, 2003). ...
ELEPHANTS PLAY a huge role within any landscape where they occur. They are habitat engineers. As charismatic species they awaken emotions among people like few others. As keystone species, they contribute significantly to the integrity of ecosystems and must be very carefully managed. From an economic perspective, they are also value generators. In this broad context, we first consider the range of relevant economic values, using the Total Economic Value approach in a generic sense, and then apply this framework to identify the specific factors that determine the economic value of elephants in South Africa. Thereafter we summarise both regional (southern African) and international studies that consider the economic value of elephants. We conclude with an assessment of the state of knowledge on elephants' contribution to the economic value of elephant-containing ecosystems and the economy as a whole. This assessment borrows heavily from studies concerning the economic value of elephants carried out in Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe, since similar studies in South Africa could not be located. To date, published studies in South Africa focused either on the cost of the individual elephant management options – which is a subject treated in the relevant management chapters of this book – or else investigations of the value of tourism. The specific contribution of elephants to the value of tourism was not isolated in these studies.
Adoption of agricultural innovations is essential for improvement of
livelihoods of smallholder farmers, especially in developing countries where
agricultural development lags the rest of the world. As a result, different
agroforestry practices have been adopted and currently being practiced in the
Sub Saharan Africa. The economic and policy issues of achieving optimum
adoption, however, remain blurred relative to the determinants of adoption of
agroforestry practices in the Sub Saharan Africa. Based on the critical
review, synthesis and analyses of agroforestry studies, several pertinent
issues related to agroforestry development have been discussed under
technical, economic, social, institutional and research issues. Further, the
factors that influence adoption of agroforestry systems among smallholder
farmers in Sub Saharan Africa are discussed under socio-economic,
institutional, marketing and technological factors. There are constraints to
scaling-up agroforestry of which this chapter highlights lack of appreciation
of the advantages accrued from agroforestry, low or negative return to
investments, emphasis on practicing commercial agriculture, outdated land
tenure systems, policy challenges, poor adoption of certified seeds/seedlings,
and insufficient access to extension services. The study recommends that
national governments in the Sub Saharan Africa region should lead the
development and guide and monitor the implementation of innovative
national policies, strategies and action plans for agroforestry systems, if
possible, through multi-stakeholder approach.
Keywords: Agroforestry, agroforestry policies and strategies, agroforestry
adoption, Sub Saharan Africa
Reported effects of trophy harvest often are controversial. The subject is nuanced and many studies lack details necessary to place their results in context. Consequently, many studies are misunderstood or their conclusions misapplied. We propose that all dialogues about trophy hunting include a definition of how they use the term trophy, details of variables measured and why they were selected, and explanations of temporal and spatial scales employed. Only with these details can potential effects of trophy hunting be understood in context and used for management and policy decisions. © 2021 The Wildlife Society. Effects of trophy harvest often are controversial because many studies lack important details. Dialogues about trophy hunting must include a definition of how they use the term trophy, details of variables measured and why they were selected, and explanations of temporal and spatial scales employed so that potential effects of trophy hunting can be understood in context.
Institutions play a significant role in stabilising large-scale cooperation in common pool resource management. Without restrictions to govern human behaviour, most natural resources are vulnerable to overexploitation. This study used a sample size of 336 households and community-level data from 30 communities around Gonarezhou National Park in Zimbabwe, to analyse the relationship between institutions and biodiversity outcomes in community-based wildlife conservation. Our results suggest a much stronger effect of institutions on biodiversity outcomes via the intermediacy of cooperation. Overall, the performance of most communities was below the desired level of institutional attributes that matter for conservation. Good institutions are an important ingredient for cooperation in the respective communities. Disaggregating the metric measure of institutions into its components shows that governance, monitoring and enforcement are more important for increased cooperation, while fairness of institutions seems to work against cooperation. Cooperation increases with trust and group size, and is also higher in communities that have endogenised punishment as opposed to communities that still rely on external enforcement of rules and regulations. Cooperation declines as we move from communal areas into the resettlement schemes and with increasing size of the resource system. A very strong positive relationship exists between cooperation and biodiversity outcomes implying that communities with elevated levels of cooperation are associated with a healthy wildlife population. Biodiversity outcomes are more successful in communities that either received wildlife management training, share information or those that are located far away from urban areas and are not very close to the boundary of the game park. Erecting an electric fence, the household head’s age, the number of years in school and number of years living in the area negatively affect biodiversity outcomes. One policy implication of this study is to increase autonomy in CAMPFIRE communities so that they are able to invest in good institutions, which allows them to self-organise and to manage wildlife sustainably. © 2018, Igitur, Utrecht Publishing and Archiving Services. All rights reserved.
The paper explores the contribution of tourism industry operators to pro-poor tourism development in Zimbabwe. This research investigates a possible nexus between the aforementioned tourism growth and its potential for poverty reduction in communities surrounding Victoria Falls and Hwange. The researchers conducted semi-structured interviews with tourism industry businesses that exhibited their products and services at the International Travel Expo held on the 18th- 21st of October 2012 at the Harare International Conference Centre in Zimbabwe. Findings indicate that the tourism industry is keen to engage in pro-poor tourism initiatives for the rural people despite the political and economic turmoil that the industry has suffered over the past years. In Zimbabwe, 80% of the population resides in rural areas and a sizable fraction of these are near National Parks and Tourism Resorts, for example, Hwange National Park, the biggest Park in Zimbabwe and Victoria Falls, respectively. The findings point to the fact that tourism operators appreciate the need to incorporate pro-poor initiatives in their operations as evidenced by their commitment towards education funding initiatives, employment of the poor and generation of income from village tours. However more could be done to enhance the pro-poor tourism benefits that accrue to the rural poor by establishing close linkages between tourism operators and local communities.
Range expansion by large carnivores in semi-agricultural landscapes represents a serious challenge for managing human-carnivore conflicts. By focusing on an area of recent re-colonization by wolves in central Italy, where livestock owners lost traditional husbandry practices to cope with wolves, we assessed an ex post and a subsequent insurance-based compensation program implemented from 1999 to 2013. We cross checked official depredation statistics and compensation records from various registries, complementing them with a questionnaire survey of sheep owners. Compared to ex post compensation (1999–2005), under the insurance program (2006–2013) compensation paid annually dropped on average by 81.1 %, mostly reflecting that only 4.6 (±0.7 SD) % of sheep owners stipulated the insurance annually. Officially, only 5.5 % of active sheep owners were annually afflicted by wolf depredation during the insurance scheme, but we estimated this proportion to be as high as 34.3 % accounting for the proportion of affected sheep owners who did not officially claim depredations. Coupled with substantial retaliatory killing (minimum of five wolves killed/year), this large amount of cryptic conflict is a symptom of distrust by livestock owners of past and current conflict mitigation policies, despite more than two decades of compensation. We conclude that compensation may fail to improve tolerance toward carnivores unless it is integrated into participatory processes and that lack of reliable data on depredations and damage mitigation strategies exacerbates the conflict. Being advocates of the evidence-based paradigm in management, scientists share a key responsibility in providing objective data concerning progress of conflict management.
The papers of this thesis analyze three different issues at three different scopes or
aggregation levels. The papers range from the analysis of the international trade at the
country level to the analysis of lecture attendance at the individual level, passing through
the analysis of geographic poverty differences within a country. Nevertheless, the analysis
of the interaction between economic theory and economic policy serves as a common
element tying together these pieces of work. They investigate the relation between
environmental regulation and international trade, regional policy and geographic poverty
differences, and mandatory attendance and absenteeism in an educational program.
Given the considerable popularity of community-based wildlife management as a conservation tool, it is of interest to assess the long-run sustainability of this policy not only in conservation terms, but also in financial terms. In this paper, we use cost–benefit analysis to study the social and financial sustainability of a large set of community conservancies in Namibia, one of the few countries where community-based wildlife management policies have been in place long enough to assess their long-term viability. We find that, although the social sustainability is generally good, the financial sustainability is problematic – especially for the younger conservancies: there is no real link between conservation achievements and financial success. This calls into question the long-term sustainability of many of these conservancies: if they are unable to generate enough revenue to pay for their running expenditure, they will eventually fail – even if they are successful from a conservation point of view. Similar problems, linked to the way in which external funders have pushed for additional conservancies to be established regardless of financial considerations, are likely to be present in other countries that have implemented such programmes.
In Uganda, nearly 1.4 million people are currently food insecure, with the prevalence of food
energy deficiency at the country level standing at 37%. Local farmers are vulnerable to
starvation in times of environmental stress, drought and floods because of dependence on
rain-fed agriculture. Accordingly, the farmer’s means of increasing food production has
always been an expansion of area under cultivation from virgin and fragile areas, especially
wetlands. Consequently, Uganda has lost about 11,268 km2 of wetland, representing a loss of
30% of the country’s wetlands from 1994 to 2009. While the environmental importance of
wetland ecosystems is widely recognized, their contribution to household food security is still
hardly explored. In this paper an assessment of the contribution of wetland resources to
household food security and factors influencing use of wetland resources in Uganda are
reported.In Uganda, nearly 1.4 million people are currently food insecure, with the prevalence of food
energy deficiency at the country level standing at 37%. Local farmers are vulnerable to
starvation in times of environmental stress, drought and floods because of dependence on
rain-fed agriculture. Accordingly, the farmer’s means of increasing food production has
always been an expansion of area under cultivation from virgin and fragile areas, especially
wetlands. Consequently, Uganda has lost about 11,268 km2 of wetland, representing a loss of
30% of the country’s wetlands from 1994 to 2009. While the environmental importance of
wetland ecosystems is widely recognized, their contribution to household food security is still
hardly explored. In this paper an assessment of the contribution of wetland resources to
household food security and factors influencing use of wetland resources in Uganda are
reported.
Uncertainty and risk are quintessential features of agricultural production. After a brief overview of the main sources of agricultural risk, we provide an exposition of expected utility theory and of the notion of risk aversion. This is followed by a basic analysis of agricultural production decisions under risk, including some comparative statics results from stylized models. Selected empirical topics are surveyed, with emphasis on risk analyses as they pertain to production decisions at the farm level. Risk management is then discussed, and a synthesis of hedging models is presented. We conclude with a detailed review of agricultural insurance, with emphasis on the moral hazard and adverse selection problems that arise in the context of crop insurance.