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迫切关切。随着非洲国家继续实现经济自由化，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了越来越多的关注。然而，尽管经济迅速自由化，许多非洲国家却无法通过农业部门摆脱贫困。各国政府越来越多地将旅游业出口视为经济增长的来源。然而，关于自然旅游(野生动物和自然观赏、狩猎和钓鱼)如何影响农村发展的实证证据很少。这一职业项目将研究自然旅游如何在区域、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。纳米比亚被认为是将以社区为基础的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计划。研究人员将以各种方式调查这些发展战略。定量研究将被用来检验以自然为基础的旅游与附近当地居民生活质量之间的关系。例如，调查员将研究家庭收入与他们离公园的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。调查员将对位于自然旅游遗址附近的十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。本项目期望有助于对促进自然旅游作为新兴经济体发展战略的好处和风险有新的认识。拟议的研究(1)调查贸易经济学理论如何很好地解释旅游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，同时说明南部非洲的环境、经济和文化多样性；(3)明确调查社区组织和赋权如何影响农村发展战略的经验；以及(4)采用迭代、混合的方法--结合定性和定量研究技术--探索出口导向型农村发展战略在国家、区域和地方各级的影响。该研究涉及与纳米比亚大学(UNAM)和莫桑比克教育大学(UP)密切合作。这两所大学的学生将获得宝贵的社会科学研究机会，而UP--一所师范学院--的学生将能够将这种研究纳入K-12课程。这项研究的结果将提供给联合国国家工作队，供其培训单元和课堂教学使用。此外，分析结果将被纳入调查员自己未来关于非洲经济发展的课堂教学中。

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.