Investing in natural capital and national security: A comparative review of restoration projects in South Africa.

ABSTRACT: Does restoration pay? We seek to answer this question by reviewing the benefits and costs of 37 economic values derived from five groups of actual restoration-related case studies in South Africa at various scales. The mean opportunity costs of not restoring are the following (a negative value implies an economic loss to society): i) local level single species studies concerned with clearing invasive alien plants (mean = -$27.24/ha/yr, sd = +/-22.93; n = 5); ii) local level multiple species studies concerned with clearing invasive alien plants (mean = -$289/ha/yr, sd = +/-550.6; n = 14); iii) national level studies concerned with clearing invasive alien plants (mean = -$40.2/ha/yr, sd = +/-17.2; n = 3); iv) non-clearing related restoration (mean = -$52/ha/yr, sd = +/-154.2; n = 10); and v)

SUBMITTER: Crookes DJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6536747 | biostudies-literature | 2019 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature