Agriculture and adaptation to climate change: the role of wildlife ranching in South Africa

In the arid and semi-arid areas of Africa, some of the most common land uses remain in pastoralism or in some cases commercial livestock ranching. Agricultural activities in these areas especially beef production is known to be highly vulnerable to the severe e¤ects of climate change. However, a major limitation is that appropriate adaptation and mitigation options are few. Therefore, both commercial farmers and communities faced with climate related challenges can only use temporary coping mechanisms or financial solutions to mitigate adverse effects of climate change.

This paper explores the role of wildlife in adaptation to climate change in areas predominantly used for livestock production in South Africa. Using a sample of 1071 wildlife and livestock farms the authors estimate a multinomial choice model of various adaptation options including livestock

and wildlife farming choices. The results indicate that mixed livestock-wildlife farms are less vulnerable to climate change when compared to specialised livestock or wildlife farms.

However, net farm revenues per hactare are higher for specialised wildlife ranches when compared to mixed wildlife-livestock ranches or livestock ranches. The results further show that temperature increase will influence most livestock farmers to change land use to wildlife ranching. At farm level, land size and social networks are also likely to play a bigger role in land use change as climate changes. Using climate models, the paper establishes that livestock farmers in Eastern Cape

Province of South Africa will be most affected by climate change and will subsequently change land use.

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Agriculture and adaptation to climate change: the role of wildlife ranching in South Africa