Clearing invasive alien plants as a cost-effective strategy for water catchment management: The case of the Olifants river catchment, South Africa
South African Journal of Economic and Management Sciences
Field | Value | |
Title | Clearing invasive alien plants as a cost-effective strategy for water catchment management: The case of the Olifants river catchment, South Africa | |
Creator | Morokong, Tshepo Blignaut, James Nkambule, Nonophile Mudhavanhu, Shepherd Vundla, Thulile | |
Description | Invasive alien plants have a negative impact on ecosystem goods and services derived from ecosystems. Consequently, the aggressive spread of invasive alien plants (IAPs) in the river catchments of South Africa is a major threat to, inter alia, water security. The Olifants River catchment is one such a catchment that is under pressure because of the high demand for water from mainly industrial sources and unsustainable land-use, which includes IAPs. This study considered the cost-effectiveness of clearing IAPs and compared these with the cost of a recently constructed dam. The methods used for data collection were semistructured interviews, site observation, desktop data analysis, and a literature review to assess the impact of IAPs on the catchments water supply. The outcomes of this study indicate that clearing invasive alien plants is a cost-effective intervention with a Unit Reference Value (URV) of R1.44/m3, which compares very favourably with that of the De Hoop dam, the URV for which is R2.93/m3. These results suggest that clearing invasive alien plants is a cost-effective way of catchment management, as the opportunity cost of not doing so (forfeiting water to the value of R2.93/m3) is higher than that of protecting the investment in the dam. | |
Publisher | AOSIS Publishing | |
Date | 2016-12-12 | |
Identifier | 10.4102/sajems.v19i5.1594 | |
Source | South African Journal of Economic and Management Sciences; Vol 19, No 5 (2016); 774-787 2222-3436 1015-8812 | |
Language | eng | |
Relation |
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:
https://sajems.org/index.php/sajems/article/view/1594/660
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