Browsing by Author "Simuchimba, Grant"

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    Economic valuation and geographical settlement analysis of protected areas : cases of Kafue and South Luangwa National Parks
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2022-12) Simuchimba, Grant; Blignaut, James; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. School of Public Leadership.
    ENGLISH SUMMARY: The Kafue National Park (KNP) and the South Luangwa National Park (SLNP) are Zambia’s two socio-ecologically important conservation areas which boast a high diversity of wildlife. Tourism potential is high in both national parks with significant impacts on the local economies in close proximity. Tourism activities in the local economies could be described in terms of ‘effects’ or ‘impacts’ experienced directly, indirectly, by businesses, or induced by households. In 2015, a total of 12,550 and 46,257 tourists visited the KNP and the SLNP respectively, with an average spending per night/day ranging between ZMW1,086 and ZMW4,442 for day/self-drive visitors and between ZMW5,479 and ZMW12,698 for top-end lodges. The main objectives for this study included deriving multipliers that could be used for tourism economic impact assessments in rural area regions of Zambia, estimating the economic impacts of tourism on local areas, estimating the tourism economic leakage from local areas, and developing an understanding of the influence of geographies of settlements around the KNP and the SLNP. Tourism multipliers were derived from the Zambia’s Input-Output tables, available at the national level, which was rescaled to rural area level. A series of on-site intercept survey for visitors’ daily expenditures was conducted at randomly selected tourism facilities. To evaluate the total tourism economic impacts and leakage of tourism impacts, the Money Generation Model 2 (MGM2), adapted for country specific multipliers, was applied. The statistical analyses were conducted by using R package. The data was analysed using bivariate analyses, multiple linear regression analyses and the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) on household consumption of natural resources, geographical locations, and well-being of locals as variables from both the KNP and the SLNP data. The derived rural area multipliers for tourism related sectors, and the averages for type I and type II multipliers, respectively are: 1.019 and 1.024 for output, 0.2152 and 0.2157 for income, 15.73 and 15.76 for employment and 0.606 and 0.610 for value-added. The total tourism economic impact generated by visitor spending in the local areas fell within the range of ZMW28.08 million and ZMW135.91 million for the KNP and ZMW120.66 million and ZMW547.64 million for the SLNP. The total tourism economic value was estimated at ZMW275 million for the KNP and ZMW1,031 million for the SLNP. The total value of visitor spending impact that escaped as internal and external economic leakage was equalled to ZMW37.92 – 167.25 million and ZMW103.30 – 422.45 million for Kafue and South Luangwa respectively. Similarly, the number of new jobs supported by the visitor spending, but which escaped the local regions as economic leakage, was equalled to 60 – 197 and 141 – 442 for the KNP and the SLNP respectively. About 57 – 59% of visitor spending impact and 62 – 69% of visitor spending which supported new jobs escaped as internal and external economic leakage from local areas around Kafue. The results of this dissertation also showed that the main perceived positive social impacts in the KNP were accesses to natural resources and fertile land while in the SLNP it was the available employment opportunities in the tourism industry for the locals. There were no important negative social impacts in the KNP, but in the SLNP they included the damage of crops and killing of people and livestock by wild animals. In both aforementioned national parks, households consumed, on average, between ZMW708.64 and ZMW2,263.87 of natural resources annually, with the highest rate going to firewood, then food and medicines and in the last instance material and fibre. Natural resources consumption was found to be radially influenced by geographic settlements in the KNP, while proxies of well-being for households in settlements near the SLNP were found to be circumferentially influenced by their geographical locations. Ultimately, although settlements located closer to PAs – especially to areas where there is high tourism activity – experienced high incidences of human-wildlife conflict, they consumed fewer natural resources, obtained more benefits from tourism and their well-being was better than settlements further away from these areas.