Title:

Assessing natural resource management through integrated environmental and social-economic accounting: The case of a Namibian conservancy

Publication Year:
2016
Abstract:

Local natural resource management in its diverse manifestations holds core to its principles that the marginal and vulnerable households are empowered to manage valuable natural resources to improve social and economic equality and conserve biodiversity. Yet studies aiming to identify the impacts often show inconsistent results. Through constructing an integrated Environmental and Social AccountingrnMatrix (ESAM), we aim to assess how natural resources are used in different sectors and by different livelihoods, thus delivering different direct and indirect benefits to the community. The study was conducted in Namibia's Sikunga Conservancy, which manages wildlife and fish resources in the Zambezi region. Our village-level ESAM shows an economic structure that strongly disadvantages remote households and identifies a small sector of the economy that benefits significantly from the use of natural resources. The ESAM approach is able to isolate undesirable socioeconomic developments such as unequal benefit sharing, which hinders community development. Keywords: community-based natural resource management, multiplier analysis, village economy, Namibia, social accounting matrix.

Publication Title:

Journal of Environment and Development

Issue:
25
Number:
4
Pages:
396โ€“425
Item Type:
Journal Article
Language:
en

EIS custom tag descriptions