Contribution of provisioning services of the Ga-Mampa wetland, South Africa, to local livelihoods

Abstract

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Inequality and ecosystem services: The value and social distribution of Niger Delta wetland services

“…Our study underscores the importance of estimating the monetary value of wetland ecosystems and can be compared to values from similar studies of African wetlands (see Emerton et al (1999);Seyam et al (2001); Lannas and Turpie (2009);Turpie et al (1999); Rebelo et al (2010); Adekola et al (2012)). Monetary values per unit area ($/ha/year) and per household ($/hh) in our study are generally higher than those reported in these studies (Table 2), which is likely due to the extent of the Niger Delta wetlands, and the level of dependence of the local community upon them compared to the other smaller wetlands.…”

“…These results are consistent with other studies (Lannas and Turpie 2009;Rebelo et al 2010), but are considerably higher than that of some other African studies. For the Ga-Mampa wetland in South Africa 16% of the total value of the wetland was generated as cash income (Adekola et al 2012); 17% in the Barotse wetland, Zambia, 13% in the Chobe-Caprivi wetlands, and 15% in Malawi's Lower Shire wetlands (Turpie et al 1999). Our study shows that the cash generating potential of wetland ecosystem services could be much higher than previously thought.…”

“…The procedure used is similar to those used in valuing the GaMampa wetland in South Africa (Adekola et al 2012). These indicators were estimated for each provisioning service on the basis of the 'expected' number of households participating in a specific production activity (EPHH), and the total annual quantity harvested (or produced) (TQH), to give the total quantity of each service collected by each participating household from the wetland.…”

“…However, given the scale of dependent populations, surprisingly little is known of the monetary value of African wetlands. Analyses have been conducted across Africa (see Emerton et al (1999); Turpie et al (2006); Turpie (2000); Adekola et al (2012); Nabahungu and Visser (2011); Turpie et al (1999)) but West Africa is not represented. The Niger Delta is the principal wetland in the region, and home to many millions of people, yet little is known of its ecosystem value (global studies of Costanza et al (1997);de Groot et al (2012) and Costana et al (2014) did not value the Niger Delta wetlands as the required information was not available) and nothing of how this value is distributed among its various stakeholders.…”

Evidence and people's perceptions of the importance of biodiversity and integrated land use management for ecosystem services and local livelihoods

“…The fact that wetlands are vital for local households has been supported by many other studies, but it is important to realise that the contribution of services varies strongly per country and region, depending on the local socio-economic and environmental context. This is underlined by a new study by Adekola et al (2012), who quantified the contribution 188 Editorial of provisioning services to local livelihoods by a relatively small (1 km 2 ) wetland in South Africa. Through a number of interesting data collection approaches, the authors were able to estimate that the wetland's contribution to local people's income represented about 15% of the average 2006 household income.…”