ADM 614 Private Ownership and Markets

Private Ownership and Markets

Grand Canyon University: ADM614Economics for Public Administrators

Private vs. Public Ownershipof Endangered Animals in Africa

Endangered animals are the species that their number is declining drastically due to growing human population, destruction of their habitats to repurpose the land, environment pollution and or their body parts being used for exotic ornaments and medical use. The “Protecting Endangered Species with Private Property Rights” case study is about why many wild animals are scarce and are on the list of endangered species and what can be done to protect and save these animals in the wild. In addition, does giving private property ownership to the local people of the regions where these animal species are endangered help protect the animals or will it increase their endangerment further. In this case study the population of black rhinos, one of the endangered wildlife species is examined in Africa where their number is declining in some parts and increasing in other parts.

Endangered animals are animals that are becoming scarce rapidly due various factors present in their environment they live in. According to Gwartney& et al, scarcity is when there is not enough of a good or resources that is freely available through nature (2015). There are many wild animal species that are scarce that are considered as endangered species since they are being killed either by nature or poachers. For example, rhino horns are used for various medicinal and ornamental purposes in different parts of Asia and Africa and thus these animals are being poached for their horns and this act makes their species to be more endangered which eventually cause them to disappear. Disappearance of endangered animals does not only have negative impact on history and economy of a country, but also affects environment sustainability.

In most parts of the world, wildlife is owned by the government and private ownership is considered illegal. Africa is a region that is home for variety of rare animal species which some are considered endangered. In most parts of Africa similar to the rest of the world, private ownership of wildlife is illegal. Yet, there are a few countries in Southern part of Africa that made private ownership of wildlife legal in order to find a solution to protect their endangered animal species who were on a drastic decline.

Both Namibia and Zimbabwe were facing severe decline in number of their black rhinos due them getting poached, thus they offered private property ownership to the local ranchers as a solution to protect the wildlife. According to this case study’s findings, private property right has helped to protect the endangered rhinos in Namibia since giving private rights to ranchers not only the number of black rhinos has increased, but there has been increase in number of elephants, lions and other endangered animals in the region. In Zimbabwe, powerful incentives were created by offering local ranchers private ownership to the wildlife to protect these animals and that worked well. Now the number of rhinos and other endangered animals staring to rise rapidly.

Looking at these results, it does appear that giving private property rights and ownership of endangered wildlife to local people in deed helped protect these endangered species. In addition, this has helped with the tourism that has flourished on the private lands that successfully preserve wildlife. These pieces of lands are used for hunting preserves, safari parks, and animal and bird farms to generate profits (Smith, 1995).

In Zimbabwe, around 13,000 square kilometers have been set aside for wildlife and are operated so that private entrepreneurs can benefit from the many tourists who come to view the animals (Freyfogle, 1995). Local ranchers stated that cattle ranching did not bring as much profit as private ownership to wildlife does to, in addition it is also more environmentally friendly practice (Muir-Leresche, 2000).

Up until now, in some parts of Africa, private ownership of wildlife is still prohibited and some have even outlawed it, yet in those parts of Africa, poachers are continuously hunting and trading rhinos illegally. This has caused the number of rhinos and other wildlife to decrease dramatically and make them scarce commodities. In these regions, local people help the poachers to poach these animals since their price is higher due to their scarcity.

Based on examples of Southern African countries success in private ownership of endangered animals, it is obvious that their approach to saving and protecting endangered wildlife has been effective. Thus, it could be a lesson-learned for other regions where their endangered animals face scarcity to offer local people private ownership to protect their animals which benefit both people and environment as well as help with economic growth.

With public ownership of endangered animals, there has always been overuse, waste, and extinction; but with private ownership it usually results in sustained-yield use and preservation (Smith, 1995).

In conclusion, property rights to ownership of wildlife and privatization of wildlife managementis a key to conservation. Governments needs to empower more local ranchers through providing them education, tools and other necessary means on how to safely look after wildlife as part of their private ownership so that they can protect and preserve more land and more animals. This will benefit the entire country who will be environmentally and economically sustainable.

References

Freyfogle, E. (1995, October). Opinion: Wildlife Habitat and Private Ownership. Retrieved from http://www.umich.edu/~esupdate/library/95.12/freyfogle.html

Gwartney, J., Stroup, R., Sobel, R., Macpherson, D. (n.d.). Economics; Private and Public Choice 15 th Edition. Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.

Muir-Leresche, K. (2000, November 30). Private Property Rights to Wildlife: The Southern Africa Experiment | Competitive Enterprise Institute. Retrieved from https://cei.org/studies-issue-analysis/private-property-rights-wildlife-southern-africa-experiment.

Smith, R. (1995, December 31). Resolving the Tragedy of the Commons by Creating Private Property Rights in Wildlife | Competitive Enterprise Institute. Retrieved from https://cei.org/studies-other-studies/resolving-tragedy-commons-creating-private-property-rights-wildlife