Bio-economics, Benefit sharing, CAMPFIRE, Conservation, Elephants, Hunting quotas, Poaching, Renewable resources, Wildlife, H1, Q20,

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The mopane worm, which is the caterpillar form of the Saturnid moth Imbrasia belina Westwood, is – like other edible insects and caterpillars – a vital source of protein in southern African countries. The worms live and graze on mopane trees, which have alternative uses. With increasing commercialization of the worm, its management, which was hitherto organized as a common property resource, has been degraded to almost open access. This paper uses a bioeconomic modelling approach to show that for some optimal allocation of the mopane forest stock, the restrictive harvest period policy advocated by community leaders may not lead to sustainable harvesting of the worm.

South Africa, one of the emerging markets and fast-developing economies in Sub-Saharan Africa recognised for varying world’s natural assets on the international market, has recorded significant economic growth in the previous several years. However, aside from the ecological repercussions of energy generation, how economic uncertainties moderate the effects of energy intensity, renewable and non-renewable energy usage, and economic complexity on the environment has largely gone unnoticed. As a result, this paper addresses an important empirical vacuum by exploring the moderating influence of economic policy uncertainty in the environmental Kuznets curve for South Africa from 1960 to 2020. Results from the novel dynamic autoregressive distributed lag simulations framework reveal the following key findings: (i) economic policy uncertainty accelerates environmental degradation in both the short and long run; (ii) economic growth (as measured by the scale effect) increases environmental degradation, whereas the square of economic growth (as measured by the technique effect) slows it down, confirming the presence of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis; (iii) environmental quality is deteriorated by energy intensity, economic complexity, non-renewable energy usage, and trade openness; (iv) the use of renewable energy and technological innovation increase environmental quality; (v) whereas the moderating effects of economic policy uncertainty on the environmental impacts of energy intensity, renewable and non-renewable energy consumption result in an increase in environmental destruction, its moderating effect on environmental implication of economic complexity plays an important role in improving environmental quality. These findings permit us to draw important policy recommendations for South Africa for improving environmental quality.

No abstract