Social optimality in land use: a comparative study of conservation and agriculture in the Sundays River Valley, Eastern Cape, South Africa

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 170-177).This dissertation explores the direct and indirect costs of expanding the land area set aside for conservation in the Sunday’s River Valley of the Eastern Cape. While many parks have been located in zones of low commercial value, either deliberately, to cut opportunity cost conservation, or through historic accident, the Greater Addo Elephant National Park (GAENP) is looking to expand in an area with high agricultural potential. It is also an area with high levels of unemployment, extensive land degradation, and unique biological diversity. These factors make achieving a socially optimal use of land particularly pertinent. Data was collected from the Greater Addo Elephant National Park (GAENP), citrus farms and restoration projects in the area. The thesis tests the hypothesis that a combination of carbon farming (restoration) and eco-tourism provides an ecologically superior land use option, and estimates its opportunity costs in terms of the income, employment and multiplier effects of agriculture foregone