Private Property Rights to Wildlife: The Southern African Experiment.

In most nations around the world wildlife are owned and managed by the State. However, in the past 30 years Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa have altered their legal regimes to give full control over the use of wildlife to the private owners of the land on which the wildlife are located. Following the privatization of wildlife management in southern African nations, wildlife tourism on private lands has boomed. In Zimbabwe, a majority of many desirable species - including 94 percent of eland, 64 percent of kudu, 63 percent of giraffe, 56 percent of cheetah, and 53 percent of both sable and impala - are found on commercial ranch properties. In Namibia, wildlife populations on private lands have risen by 80 percent since the creation in 1967 of a regime of private wildlife ownership. Privatization of control over use of wildlife has had more success in promoting biodiversity in the southern African region than any other policy measure. Other parts of the world may be able to benefit from the lessons learned from the successes of southern African nations in privatization and commercialization of wildlife. Based on the southern African experience, many wildlife managers should reconsider whether positive incentives might not be more effective in the future in promoting wildlife populations than the past club of state commands and controls.Wildlife; Privatization; Africa; Biodiversity; Economic Development

Behavior And Calf Survival In Alaskan Moose

Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 196

Macroeconomic policy reforms and agriculture: towards equitable growth in Zimbabwe

"This report investigates the income and equity effects of macroeconomic policy reforms in Zimbabwe, emphasizing linkages between macroeconomic policies and agricultural performance and agriculture's influence on aggregate income and its distribution. Analyses focus on reform of the foreign trade regime, public expenditure, and tax policy, along with the potential benefits of combining these structural changes with various land reform scenarios. The study uses a CGE model that provides a policy simulation laboratory in which exogenous policy changes are analyzed for their economywide income and equity effects. The report highlights the need for policy complementarities in Zimbabwe that can contribute to equitable growth. It should be of interest not only to those concerned with recent economic developments in Zimbabwe but also to those concerned with the broader issues of macroeconomic reform and its ultimate effects." Author's AbstractMacroeconomics, Structural adjustment (Economic policy), Agriculture Economic aspects Zimbabwe, Agriculture and state,

Evaluation of management strategies for forest reserves in Malawi: the case of Thuma Forest Reserve

An AEE Working Paper on forestry management and conservation at Malawi"s Thuma Forest Reserve.This paper demonstrates how functions and values of forest reserves can be used to determine appropriate management strategies of forest reserves. The paper also demonstrates how community perceptions and preferences can be incorporated in the decision making process. An investigation is also carried out on the social and economic factors that can determine community self interest and willingness to get involved in forest management activities. A simple framework for analysing forest reserve management strategies has been developed using Multicriteria Analysis. Results from the analysis suggest that communities surrounding Thuma Forest Reserve (TFR) seem to perceive the benefits from the forest reserve to be less that those from the alternative use of the land (cultivation). It also appears that local leaders are perceived to be weak in enforcing regulations and therefore not to be effective in protecting the forest reserve. The state is perceived to be the best management option for future preservation but not for direct benefits to the community. Participatory management with both the communities and the state involved is. on the other hand, perceived to be the option that can encourage future preservation and increase direct benefits to the neighbouring community. Another finding of the study is that willingness to participate in forest management activities appears to be affected by literacy level, income level and land holding size. The analysis of the management options has indicated that participatory management can best maintain the water catchment role of TFR, which is very crucial to the residents of Lilongwe City. Further research should consider ways in which those benefiting from it could reward those protecting the catchment in order to ensure continued catchment protection

Agricultural marketing

A research paper on agricultural marketing in Zimbabwe.Zimbabwe has had a wide range of experience with different types of marketing systems, ranging from state-controlled to free market systems. Given that Zimbabwe is an agro-based economy, the development of an efficient marketing system is key to sustainable agricultural growth and economic development. Like any other developing country, Zimbabwe followed the development process regarding agricultural commodity marketing systems, starting with state control then moving to a free market system from the 1930s to late 1990s. State interventions during the 1990s were to regulate and facilitate the development of markets as well as protect against unfair commodity pricing systems. The land and agrarian reforms beginning in 1999 and the food crisis during the same period ushered back state control and interventions in the marketing of agricultural commodities. Some of the structural and institutional developments in the sector from 1999 appear to have been planned but other fundamental changes were made on an ad-hoc basis. This chapter discusses the marketing of agricultural commodities from the pre-independence era to the situation in 2005. The chapter then critically examines the current status of marketing of major agriculture commodities.US Agency For International Development (US AID