The value of the trout fishery at Rhodes, North Eastern Cape, South Africa: a travel cost analysis using count data models

Abstract

Recent government legislation in South Africa (the National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act, No.10 of 2004) calls for the removal of trout from ecosystems and habitats where they may cause harm. The elimination of trout would, however, undermine the tourism appeal of many upper catchments in South Africa to recreational fishers. This paper reports the first formal recreational valuation of a trout fishery in South Africa - the one in and around Rhodes village, North Eastern Cape. The valuation is carried out by applying the individual travel cost method using several count data models. The zero truncated negative binomial model which allows for the non-negative integer nature of the trip data, for truncation as well as for over-dispersion, found that the consumer surplus per day and per trip to the Rhodes trout fishery was ZAR2 668 (US$334) and ZAR13,072 (US$1634), respectively in the year 2007, and the total consumer surplus generated was ZAR18,026,288 (US$2 253,286).trout, South Africa, travel cost method, count data, recreational value,

An estimate of the recreational value of the Agulhas Plain, South Africa, with special reference to the value of plant biodiversity

“…The responses to this categorical variable were converted into a continuous variable by taking the midpoints of each income bracket. Although the theoretical relationship between recreational trips and income is positive, empirical results often fail to confirm this (Du Preez & Hosking, 2011).…”

Valuing marine parks in a small island developing state: a travel cost analysis in Seychelles

“…Two other problems commonly arise from the application of count data models for estimating recreation site demand using on-site surveys (Englin and Shonkwiler, 1995; Shaw, 1988; Chakraborty and Keith, 2000; Loomis, 2003; du Preez and Hosking, 2011): the probability of being surveyed depends on the frequency of visits (the problem of endogenous stratification);non-users are not sampled (the problem of truncation). If these two problems are not accounted for, then the estimates generated will be biased and not consistent (Shaw, 1988; Creel and Loomis, 1990; Loomis, 2003). One simple procedure to fix both endogenous stratification and truncation is to weight each observation by the expected value of trips (Shaw, 1988).…”

The Political Economy of South African Trout Fisheries

“…To the extent that trout is the most successful aquacultural species, economists argue that food security, exports, employment, and poverty reduction must be decisive factors in shaping biodiversity policy change. So long as trout supports a large as well as expanding fishing tourism sector, economists argue that the tourism associated with the species must be an additional decisive factor in guiding biodiversity policy (Du Preez and Hosking 2011;Du Preez and Lee 2010).…”