Complementary benefits of tourism and hunting to communal conservancies in Namibia

• Published in: Conservation biology 2016-06, Vol.30 (3), p.628-638
• Main Authors: Naidoo, Robin, Weaver, L. Chris, Diggle, Richard W., Matongo, Greenwell, Stuart-Hill, Greg, Thouless, Chris
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: accionistas; Agriculture; Animals; Animals, Wild; beneficios de pago en especie; beneficios financieros; communal lands; community-based conservation; conservación basada en la comunidad; Conservation; Conservation of Natural Resources; financial benefits; Hunting; hunting ban; in-kind benefits; Motivation; Namibia; prohibición de la caza; Special Section: Moving from Citizen to Civic Science to Address Wicked Conservation Problems; stakeholders; tierras comunales; Tourism
• ISSN: 0888-8892; 1523-1739
• DOI: 10.1111/cobi.12643

Tourism and hunting both generate substantial revenues for communities and private operators in Africa, but few studies have quantitatively examined the trade-offs and synergies that may result from these two activities. We evaluated financial and in-kind benefit streams from tourism and hunting on 77 communal conservancies in Namibia from 1998 to 2013, where community-based wildlife conservation has been promoted as a land-use that complements traditional subsistence agriculture. We used data collected annually for all communal conservancies to characterize whether benefits were derived from hunting or tourism. We classified these benefits into 3 broad classes and examined how benefits flowed to stakeholders within communities under the status quo and under a simulated ban on hunting. Across all conservancies, total benefits from hunting and tourism increased at roughly the same rate, although conservancies typically started generating benefits from hunting within 3 years of formation as opposed to after 6 years for tourism. Disaggregation of data revealed that the main benefits from hunting were income for conservancy management and food in the form of meat for the community at large. The majority of tourism benefits were salaried jobs at lodges. A simulated ban on trophy hunting significantly reduced the number of conservancies that could cover their operating costs, whereas eliminating income from tourism did not have as severe an effect. Given that the benefits generated from hunting and tourism typically begin at different times in a conservancy's life-span (earlier vs. later, respectively) and flow to different segments of local communities, these 2 activities together may provide the greatest incentives for conservation on communal lands in Namibia. A singular focus on either hunting or tourism would reduce the value of wildlife as a competitive land-use option and have grave repercussions for the viability of community-based conservation efforts in Namibia, and possibly other parts of Africa. El turismo y la caza generan ingresos públicos sustanciales para las comunidades y los operadores privados en África, pero pocos estudios han examinado cuantitativamente las compensaciones y las sinergias que pueden resultar de estas dos actividades. Evaluamos las oleadas de beneficios financieros y de pago en especie provenientes del turismo y la caza en 77 zonas de conservación comunal en Namibia desde 1998 a 2013, donde la conservación de vida silvestre ba