Abstract
The Agulhas Plain is a remarkable recreational site which combines the attraction of a pristine marine environment with exceptional plant biodiversity, rural tranquillity and the novelty of being at the southernmost tip of Africa. The resource is a public good to which the market cannot assign a full value. This paper presents an estimated recreational value based on individual travel cost models and a sample of 370 visitors surveyed in 2010. Trip demands were estimated with zero truncated negative binomial models to account for over-dispersion. The study established a recreational value of R2.167 billion in 2010 prices for the site as a whole. By partitioning the sample into visitors who indicated having been attracted or not to the area by its nature and biodiversity, a net biodiversity value of R2 866 per trip was calculated. Allocated between marine and terrestrial resources based on the proportion of activities related to each type of resource, the value of plant biodiversity was estimated to be R2 268 per hectare in 2010to 2010 prices.
Highlights
Recreational sites are recognised as public goods which are undervalued by the market and depend on public investment for their support
Over the last twenty years, individual travel cost models have emerged as the preferred way of measuring the use value of recreational sites (Creel & Loomis, 1990; Freeman, 1993; Eglin & Shonkwiler, 1995; Gurmu & Trivedi, 1996; Garrod & Willis, 1999; Ward & Beal, 2000; Shrestha, Seidl & Moraes, 2002; Martínez-Espiñeira & AmoakaTuffour, 2008)
Almost a third of the land surface area is formally protected in the Agulhas National Park, which includes the southern tip of Africa and the Agulhas lighthouse, as well as De Hoop Nature Reserve, the Nuwejaars Wetland Private Protected Area and a handful of smaller wildflower reserves
Summary
Recreational sites are recognised as public goods which are undervalued by the market and depend on public investment for their support. The main objective of this paper was to estimate the recreational value of the Agulhas Plain as a single destination. The Agulhas Plain is the coastal lowland between Hermanus and the estuary of the Breede River, an area covering 335,335 hectares. The site offers a pristine coastline with many excellent opportunities for whale watching, shark-cage diving, recreational fishing and diving. The Agulhas Plain is well known for exceptionally rich plant biodiversity. It is estimated that about half a million people visit the area every year, causing the number of inhabitants in the many coastal settlements to increase tento twentyfold during the holiday seasons of Christmas and Easter
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