IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecoser/v27y2017ipbp203-223.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The benefits and costs of clearing invasive alien plants in northern Zululand, South Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Nkambule, N.P.
  • Blignaut, J.N.
  • Vundla, T.
  • Morokong, T.
  • Mudavanhu, S.

Abstract

More than 60% of northern Zululand is tribal land with a substantial area falling within protected areas. Much of the land is invaded by invasive alien plant species (IAPs) such as Chromolaena odorata and Lantana camara. Most of these species do not have any economic value and compromises communal livelihoods and biodiversity. This paper aims to investigate the benefits and costs of clearing IAPs in northern Zululand. A system dynamics model was developed specifically for this analysis. A number of scenarios characterised by various IAP spread rates and clearing investment interventions were formulated and evaluated. The study finds that the highest net returns from clearing the IAPs were generated by value-added products (VAPs), followed by the value of water not consumed by the IAPs. The clearing of IAPs was found to be more cost-effective than augmenting water supply. Supplementing clearing investment operations through private sector co-finance reduces the stock of invasion, increases the area cleared, increases biomass for VAPs, saves more water and clears a greater area for livestock and maize production. The co-finance scenario proved to be the better management option. This scenario generated the most benefits and had a positive net present value (R2.5 million).

Suggested Citation

  • Nkambule, N.P. & Blignaut, J.N. & Vundla, T. & Morokong, T. & Mudavanhu, S., 2017. "The benefits and costs of clearing invasive alien plants in northern Zululand, South Africa," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 27(PB), pages 203-223.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecoser:v:27:y:2017:i:pb:p:203-223
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoser.2017.04.011
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221204161730284X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ecoser.2017.04.011?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Blignaut, James & Mander, Myles & Schulze, Roland & Horan, Mark & Dickens, Chris & Pringle, Catherine & Mavundla, Khulile & Mahlangu, Isaiah & Wilson, Adrian & McKenzie, Margaret & McKean, Steve, 2010. "Restoring and managing natural capital towards fostering economic development: Evidence from the Drakensberg, South Africa," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(6), pages 1313-1323, April.
    2. Higgins, Steven I. & Turpie, Jane K. & Costanza, Robert & Cowling, Richard M. & Le Maitre, Dave C. & Marais, Christo & Midgley, Guy F., 1997. "An ecological economic simulation model of mountain fynbos ecosystems: Dynamics, valuation and management," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 155-169, August.
    3. Currie, Bianca & Milton, Suzanne J. & Steenkamp, J.C., 2009. "Cost-benefit analysis of alien vegetation clearing for water yield and tourism in a mountain catchment in the Western Cape of South Africa," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(10), pages 2574-2579, August.
    4. Turpie, J.K. & Marais, C. & Blignaut, J.N., 2008. "The working for water programme: Evolution of a payments for ecosystem services mechanism that addresses both poverty and ecosystem service delivery in South Africa," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(4), pages 788-798, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zizipho Atyosi & Luambo Jeffrey Ramarumo & Alfred Maroyi, 2019. "Alien Plants in the Eastern Cape Province in South Africa: Perceptions of Their Contributions to Livelihoods of Local Communities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-16, September.
    2. Maher J. Tadros & Amani Al-Assaf & Yahia A. Othman & Zeyad Makhamreh & Hatem Taifour, 2020. "Evaluating the Effect of Prosopis juliflora , an Alien Invasive Species, on Land Cover Change Using Remote Sensing Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(15), pages 1-13, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Clark, V. Ralph & Vidal, João de Deus & Grundy, Isla M. & Fakarayi, Togarasei & Childes, Susan L. & Barker, Nigel P. & Linder, H. Peter, 2019. "Bridging the divide between intuitive social-ecological value and sustainability in the Manica Highlands of southern Africa (Zimbabwe-Mozambique)," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 39(C).
    2. Chisholm, Ryan A., 2010. "Trade-offs between ecosystem services: Water and carbon in a biodiversity hotspot," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(10), pages 1973-1987, August.
    3. Boerema, Annelies & Schoelynck, Jonas & Bal, Kris & Vrebos, Dirk & Jacobs, Sander & Staes, Jan & Meire, Patrick, 2014. "Economic valuation of ecosystem services, a case study for aquatic vegetation removal in the Nete catchment (Belgium)," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 7(C), pages 46-56.
    4. Hao Wang & Sander Meijerink & Erwin van der Krabben, 2020. "Institutional Design and Performance of Markets for Watershed Ecosystem Services: A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(16), pages 1-26, August.
    5. Jess L. Delves & V. Ralph Clark & Stefan Schneiderbauer & Nigel P. Barker & Jörg Szarzynski & Stefano Tondini & João de Deus Vidal & Andrea Membretti, 2021. "Scrutinising Multidimensional Challenges in the Maloti-Drakensberg (Lesotho/South Africa)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-22, July.
    6. Richard J. Thomas & Emmanuelle Quillérou & Naomi Stewart, 2013. "The rewards of investing in sustainable land management," Working Papers hal-01954823, HAL.
    7. Chenai Murata & Sukhmani Mantel & Chris de Wet & Anthony R Palmer, 2019. "Lay Knowledge of Ecosystem Services in Rural Eastern Cape Province, South Africa: Implications for Intervention Program Planning," Water Economics and Policy (WEP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 5(02), pages 1-29, April.
    8. Laxmi D. Bhatta & Sunita Chaudhary & Anju Pandit & Himlal Baral & Partha J. Das & Nigel E. Stork, 2016. "Ecosystem Service Changes and Livelihood Impacts in the Maguri-Motapung Wetlands of Assam, India," Land, MDPI, vol. 5(2), pages 1-14, June.
    9. Mander, Myles & Jewitt, Graham & Dini, John & Glenday, Julia & Blignaut, James & Hughes, Catherine & Marais, Christo & Maze, Kristal & van der Waal, Benjamin & Mills, Anthony, 2017. "Modelling potential hydrological returns from investing in ecological infrastructure: Case studies from the Baviaanskloof-Tsitsikamma and uMngeni catchments, South Africa," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 27(PB), pages 261-271.
    10. Schäffler, Alexis & Swilling, Mark, 2013. "Valuing green infrastructure in an urban environment under pressure — The Johannesburg case," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 246-257.
    11. Zhang, Qi & Bilsborrow, Richard E. & Song, Conghe & Tao, Shiqi & Huang, Qingfeng, 2019. "Rural household income distribution and inequality in China: Effects of payments for ecosystem services policies and other factors," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 114-127.
    12. Zhang, Jing & Brown, Colin & Qiao, Guanghua & Zhang, Bao, 2019. "Effect of Eco-compensation Schemes on Household Income Structures and Herder Satisfaction: Lessons From the Grassland Ecosystem Subsidy and Award Scheme in Inner Mongolia," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 46-53.
    13. Ina, Porras & Bruce, Alyward & Jeff, Dengel, 2013. "Monitoring payments for watershed services schemes in developing countries," MPRA Paper 47185, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Drechsler, Martin & Watzold, Frank, 2007. "The optimal dynamic allocation of conservation funds under financial uncertainty," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(2-3), pages 255-266, March.
    15. Gowdy, John M. & Ferreri Carbonell, Ada, 1999. "Toward consilience between biology and economics: the contribution of Ecological Economics," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 337-348, June.
    16. Pablo Cuenca & Juan Robalino & Rodrigo Arriagada & Cristian Echeverría, 2018. "Are government incentives effective for avoided deforestation in the tropical Andean forest?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(9), pages 1-14, September.
    17. Blignaut, James & Mander, Myles & Schulze, Roland & Horan, Mark & Dickens, Chris & Pringle, Catherine & Mavundla, Khulile & Mahlangu, Isaiah & Wilson, Adrian & McKenzie, Margaret & McKean, Steve, 2010. "Restoring and managing natural capital towards fostering economic development: Evidence from the Drakensberg, South Africa," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(6), pages 1313-1323, April.
    18. Duke, Esther Alice & Goldstein, Joshua H. & Teel, Tara L. & Finchum, Ryan & Huber-Stearns, Heidi & Pitty, Jorge & Rodríguez P., Gladys Beatriz & Rodríguez, Samuel & Sánchez, Luis Olmedo, 2014. "Payments for ecosystem services and landowner interest: Informing program design trade-offs in Western Panama," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 44-55.
    19. Brill, Gregg & Anderson, Pippin & O'Farrell, Patrick, 2017. "Urban national parks in the global South: Linking management perceptions, policies and practices to water-related ecosystem services," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 28(PB), pages 185-195.
    20. Alireza Daneshi & Mostafa Panahi & Saber Masoomi & Mehdi Vafakhah & Hossein Azadi & Muhammad Mobeen & Pinar Gökcin Ozuyar & Vjekoslav Tanaskovik, 2021. "Assessment of non-monetary facilities in Urmia Lake basin under PES scheme: a rehabilitation solution for the dry lake in Iran," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(7), pages 10141-10172, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecoser:v:27:y:2017:i:pb:p:203-223. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/ecosystem-services .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.