With the emergence of the new field of resource economics, one now has the ability to value and to include natural resources in decision making. This thesis aims to explore the valuation of natural resources by reviewing the economic values, techniques, methods and ecological aspects of restoration. Assegaaibos mountain catchment in the Western Cape Province has been used as a case-study example. A cost-benefit analysis of the restoration of the mountain catchment, in terms of the direct benefits of water and tourism, has been performed. The costs of restoration were observed to see whether they outweighed the benefits (income) derived (water and tourism). The results show that the water and tourism benefits did outweigh the costs of a basic restoration scenario. However, the basic restoration scenario did not fulfil the ecological requirements of the project. The results also illustrated that in the moderate restoration scenario, costs only outweighed the benefits when a three percent discount rate was applied. With the optimistic restoration scenario, costs outweighed benefits only when an eight percent discount rate was used. In the comprehensive restoration scenario, costs were shown to outweigh by far the water and tourism benefits over a thirty-year time frame. However, it should be noted that the deterioration of the environment (accelerated erosion, reinvasion, reduced water quality) was not factored into the costs of failure to rehabilitate.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nmmu/vital:10751 |
| Date | January 2007 |
| Creators | Currie, Bianca |
| Publisher | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Faculty of Science |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Masters, MTech |
| Format | viii, 130 leaves, pdf |
| Rights | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University |
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