Quantifying the potential of restored natural capital to alleviate poverty and help conserve nature : a case study from South Africa

Abstract

The question addressed in this chapter is whether a community conservation initiative (coupled with the restoration of degraded land) can be considered a feasible alternative land use option compared to subsistence agriculture. This question has discussed elsewhere (Barnes et al. 2003 and Luckert and Campbell 2003), but here we will tackle it by presenting alternative economic scenarios for an impoverished rural community living outside a national park in South Africa.