Okavango Delta Management Plan - Ramsar Convention on Wetlands

Existence value is the appreciation people derive from the knowledge that something exists,
while bequest value is the value derived from knowing that one’s children will be able to
enjoy something in the future.
The growing popularity of the environmental movement indicates the substantial worth of
biodiversity, particularly verified by people’s willingness to donate to help protect species
and ecosystems they have never, and will never, directly interact with. The <strong>Okavango</strong> <strong>Delta</strong>
contains noteworthy biodiversity, although it is not particularly well endowed with
endemicity. Perhaps the greatest attribute of the <strong>Delta</strong> in this regard is its extent and
intactness as a wilderness area. Anything that impinges on this pristineness is likely to
affect the utility derived by people from this area.
Value may also be placed on the intactness of traditional peoples and practices. Much of
the traditional culture persists and is a source of pride. Degradation of the wetland and its
resources might ultimately lead to an element of cultural decay. This decay may result
from the loss of traditional plants for food and medicine, for example. Other more abstract
impacts may result from the breakdown of gender roles without re-enforcement of such
activities as hunting and collecting or a widening rich-poor disparity.
Estimating the existence value (including bequest value) of the <strong>Okavango</strong> <strong>Delta</strong> would
require a substantial undertaking, involving the use of contingent valuation, a survey based
method (Arrow et al. 1993). It would involve eliciting a willingness to pay from all those
who derive such utility from the area. Since the <strong>Okavango</strong> <strong>Delta</strong> is of world renown, this
should ideally be a global study. It is probable that the existence value among the
international community far exceeds that of Botswana nationals’ existence value of the
<strong>Delta</strong>, or their ‘willingness to pay’ for its continued existence.
The measurement of existence value was beyond the scope of this study. However, at least
two studies have considered this problem at some level. Barnes (1996) surveyed visitors to
Botswana and ascertained the amount they were willing to pay towards a conservation fund
for Botswana’s wildlife. Tourists were willing to pay P125 on average, suggesting a total
aggregate willingness to pay (WTP) among users alone of some P8 million (equivalent to
about $4 million at the time).
Mmopelwa (2005) and Natalie Mladenov (2002) conducted a contingent valuation survey in
the <strong>Delta</strong> area in which both resident households and visitors were asked what they would
be willing to pay to a conservation fund to ensure conservation of the <strong>Okavango</strong> <strong>Delta</strong>.
Households were allowed to express this in terms of livestock or produce. 70% of
households and 33.3% of tourists had a positive WTP. Households had a mean WTP of just
under P50, amounting to a total of about P53 000. Tourists had a mean WTP of about
P1050, amounting to an estimated total of P13 million. Note that in both of these studies
this is a once-off payment, and not an annual value.
These estimates greatly underestimate the existence value of the <strong>Delta</strong>, however, as they
only reveal the WTP of those people that happened to be visiting the <strong>Delta</strong> in a particular
year. In this regard, one could assume that similar WTP prevails for each new visitor to the
<strong>Delta</strong>, and given that most visits are once-off, that the values could be assumed to be
annual as a minimum estimate. However, this still only considers visitors to the <strong>Delta</strong>.
There is a great deal more people, including many who cannot afford to visit the area, who
would express a willingness to pay for conservation of this area. This would include both
Botswana nationals and the global community. For example, the existence value of South
African biodiversity is estimated to be at least $263 million per year to South Africans alone
(Turpie 2003). Indeed, many studies have found that existence value far exceeds the direct
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