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Estimating economic losses to tourism in Africa from the illegal killing of elephants
Naidoo, Robin Fisher, Brendan Manica, Andrea Balmford, Andrew
Naidoo, Robin
Fisher, Brendan
Manica, Andrea
Balmford, Andrew
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© 2016 The Author(s).
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10.1038/ncomms13379
Abstract
Recent surveys suggest tens of thousands of elephants are being poached annually across Africa, putting the two species at risk across much of their range. Although the financial motivations for ivory poaching are clear, the economic benefits of elephant conservation are poorly understood. We use Bayesian statistical modelling of tourist visits to protected areas, to quantify the lost economic benefits that poached elephants would have delivered to African countries via tourism. Our results show these figures are substantial (∼USD $25 million annually), and that the lost benefits exceed the anti-poaching costs necessary to stop elephant declines across the continent's savannah areas, although not currently in the forests of central Africa. Furthermore, elephant conservation in savannah protected areas has net positive economic returns comparable to investments in sectors such as education and infrastructure. Even from a tourism perspective alone, increased elephant conservation is therefore a wise investment by governments in these regions.
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2016-11-01
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fisher2016a.pdf
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Naidoo R, Fisher B, Manica A, Balmford A. Estimating economic losses to tourism in Africa from the illegal killing of elephants. Nature communications. 2016 Nov 1;7(1):1-9.