In South Africa, there are 14,000 game ranches with 10,000 practicing pure wildlife ranching while the remaining 4,000 are integrated wildlife-livestock ranches. Their rise in numbers is largely due to legislative changes. A large literature on the impact of climate change and adaptation in agriculture has focused more on crops and livestock production. In most cases, livestock particularly beef production is undertaken in the arid and semi-arid land conducive also to wildlife. Much of the literature report that climate change will negatively affect productivity of livestock especially beef production. An evaluation of the impact of climate change on wildlife ranching add to this literature in a couple of ways; first, wildlife ranching is considered a subsector in agriculture and second, wildlife provide an alternative profitable, innovative and sustainable land use option to beef production in the arid land. Studies have shown that wildlife ranchers are equally affected by drought and they practice different forms of ranching such as integrated livestock-wildlife ranching. Whether such behaviour patterns are informed by the desire to adapt to climate change is not clear in the literature. Previous studies have used cross section survey or repeated cross sectional surveys. However, we use a panel Ricardian model to address specification challenges of single year cross sectional survey and unstable results due to repeated cross sectional surveys. The study therefore addresses the impact of climate change on the value of wildlife and welfare of ranchers.
Theme 2: Quality of Life for People and Animals.
