CAREER: The Effects of Nature Tourism as a Development Strategy on Poverty and Inequality: The Cases of Namibia and Mozambique

持续的贫困和日益加剧的不平等是撒哈拉以南非洲地区的紧迫问题。随着非洲国家继续实行经济自由化，并采取以出口为基础的增长战略，主要侧重于农产品出口，国际贸易与不平等之间的关系受到越来越多的审视。然而，尽管经济迅速自由化，许多非洲国家仍无法通过农业部门出口摆脱贫困。各国政府越来越多地将旅游业出口视为增长的来源。然而，关于自然旅游（野生动物和自然景观、狩猎和捕鱼）如何影响农村发展的经验证据很少。该项目将研究自然旅游业如何在区域、社区和家庭层面影响纳米比亚和莫桑比克的贫困和不平等，同时也考虑到国家之间和国家内部的多样性。纳米比亚被认为是利用社区自然旅游作为农村发展战略的先驱，而莫桑比克最近开始促进自然旅游和社区保护方案。研究人员将以各种方式调查这些发展战略。定量研究将用于审查自然旅游与附近当地居民生活质量之间的关系。例如，调查人员将研究家庭收入与公园距离之间是否存在关系。定性研究将以此为基础，调查经济变化对人们生活的详细影响。调查员将对自然旅游景点附近的10个社区的居民进行调查和采访，以了解旅游业如何影响当地的生计和社区的社会结构。本项目旨在为新兴经济体将自然旅游作为一种发展战略的好处和风险提供新的知识。拟议的研究（1）调查贸易的经济理论如何解释旅游业对农村地区贫困和不平等的影响;（2）评估自然旅游对贫困和不平等的影响，同时考虑到南部非洲的环境、经济和文化多样性;（3）明确调查农村发展战略的经验如何受到社区组织和赋权的影响;（4）使用迭代的混合方法-结合定性和定量研究技术-探讨出口导向型农村发展战略在国家、区域和地方各级的影响。这项研究涉及与纳米比亚大学和莫桑比克师范大学的密切合作。来自这两所大学的学生将获得宝贵的社会科学研究机会，而来自UP（一所师范学院）的学生将能够将这项研究纳入K-12课程。研究结果将提供给UNAM和UP，用于其培训模块和课堂教学。此外，分析结果将纳入调查员今后关于非洲经济发展的课堂教学。

Persistent poverty and rising inequality are pressing concerns within Sub-Saharan Africa. The relationship between international trade and inequality has come under increased scrutiny as African countries continue to liberalize their economies and adopt export-based growth strategies, mainly focusing on agricultural exports. Despite rapid economic liberalization, however, many African countries have been unable to export themselves out of poverty via the agricultural sector. Governments are looking increasingly to tourism exports as a source of growth. Yet there is little empirical evidence on how nature tourism (wildlife and nature viewing, safari hunting, and fishing) impacts rural development. This CAREER project will examine how nature tourism affects poverty and inequality in Namibia and Mozambique at the regional, community, and household levels, while also accounting for diversity between and within countries. Namibia is considered a pioneer of using community-based nature tourism as a rural development strategy, while Mozambique has more recently embarked on the promotion of nature tourism and community conservancy programs. The researcher will investigate these development strategies in a variety of ways. Quantitative research will be used to examine relationships between nature-based tourism and the quality of life of nearby local populations. For example, the investigator will study whether there is a relationship between households' incomes and their distance from parks. Qualitative research will build on this, and investigate the detailed effects of economic changes on people's lives. The investigator will conduct surveys and interviews with residents in ten communities located near sites of nature tourism, to see how tourism is affecting local livelihoods and the social structures of communities. This project expects to contribute to new knowledge of the benefits and risks associated with the promotion of nature tourism as a development strategy in emerging economies.The proposed study (1) investigates how well economic theories of trade explain the effects of tourism on poverty and inequality in rural regions; (2) assesses the effects of nature tourism on poverty and inequality, while accounting for environmental, economic, and cultural diversity within southern Africa; (3) explicitly investigates how experiences of rural development strategies are influenced by community organization and empowerment; and (4) uses an iterative, mixed methodology--integrating qualitative and quantitative research techniques--to explore the impacts of export-led rural development strategies at the national, regional, and local scales. The study involves close collaboration with the University of Namibia (UNAM) and the Pedagogical University of Mozambique (UP). Students from both universities will gain valuable exposure to social science research, and those from UP--a teachers college--will be able to incorporate this research into K-12 curricula. The results of the study will be made available to UNAM and UP for use in their training modules and classroom instruction. In addition, the results of the analysis will be integrated into the investigator's own future classroom teaching on African economic development.