An approach to evaluate the effect of property size on land-use options in semi-arid rangelands
It is claimed that high returns can be achieved from hunting and ecotourism operations. As a result wildlife production is a rapidly growing form of land-use in South Africa. Lately, rural African communities have approached regional conservation agencies for aid to establish small game reserves so that they too may benefit from wildlife production. However, wildlife operations have high input costs relative to domestic stock operations and no attempt has been made to determine the effect of property size on the costs and revenue generated by wildlife. This paper attempts to develop a method for identifying the relevant economic variables of wildlife production, subsistence production and commercial beef production and the revenues that these separate land-uses generate. Keywords: Economies of scale, Wildlife production, Livestock production, Savannah land-use.
Ecological Modelling