Political economy: theory and practice

¶ … theoretical insights in the Anderson & Hill and Anderson & Huggins books to developing two policy proposals designed to maximize the number of elephants while also protecting the interests of farmers. In these policy proposals, we will assume that traditional, fenced in national parks will exist in African countries along with traditional fence agriculture. Additionally, there will be game ranching/sustainable tourism and private reserves where harvesting of economically valuable natural plants.

Sustainable Tourism in Fenced National Parks and Conventional Agriculture

One should always keep resources that have worked in the past. Sustainable tourism presents possibilities for the conservation of elephant populations. Fenced in game preserves and national parks that promote tourism have been around for years and represent excellent venues to connect with wealthy vacationers who will spend money in the host countries and will hopefully donate to organizations that promote elephant and other wildlife conservation. By increasing tourism, the national governments can get more money to enhance security in the parks and limit poaching.

Many people oppose hunting game under any circumstances. However, a mainstay of conservation in Africa in many countries are wealthy hunters that come in to engage in legitimate hunting on game farms/preserves. The money coming from the sale of hunting licenses, tickets, sales and the hiring of guides and other local employees is pumped into conservation activities and also into the host country's economy to benefit the local population. The goal of this program is to maximize the number of elephants while keeping the wildlife in the precincts of the parks and away from trampling the farmer's crops.

Both of the options above are feasible and have been used successfully in the past. They balance off the needs of wildlife with those of the farmers. Of course, corruption in host countries that siphons off tourism and conservation money degrades the efforts to conserve the numbers of animals such as elephants. Also, a culture of corruption helps to breed poaching (e.g., for elephant ivory) or illegal bush meat hunting that is driving many species such as the African elephant to the edge of extinction.

2. Open Range Options in Lesser Populated Areas in the Nature Conservancies

The nature conservancy option links tourism, conservation and human well-being attempt in an attempt to provide a sustainable economic option for local indigenous peoples who want to as much as possible hang on to their traditional means of existence. On the nature conservancies in the emote areas, the sustainable tourism photo safari and the hunting safari live side by side, much as they do on the game ranches, but on a much larger scale.

The key difference between the nature conservancy approach and the game ranch approach is its attention to optimizing indigenous well-being in the countries in which they are located. This type of multi-dimensional analysis eschews traditional economic measurements based upon gross domestic product and tries to capture the entire experience by satisfying physical needs but not at the expense of other needs (cultural, traditional, etc.) that allow for a high quality of life. Such people engaged in sustainable tourism in the nature conservancies are generally better off and happier as well because they are living in closer proximity to their original traditions.