The Socio-Economics of the West, Central and Southern African Coastal Communities

The Combined Value of the Ocean Ecosystem Services to the BCLME Countries

The data used in Sumaila (2015) is imperfect and comes from previous studies. The benefit transfer approach is applied with regards to the economic multipliers that are based on input-output models of differently structured economies. 103 Participation, expenditure and employment data for the MRA estimates come from a 2010 meta-analysis that uses a large degree of economic modelling and relies heavily on the benefit transfer approach. 104 Sumaila (2015) presents a rough, but telling, picture of how the BCLME countries share marine ecosystem services.

The combined DOI of the BCLME ocean ecosystems is US$ 602.2 million per year. Although South Africa gains the most from the mariculture and recreational fisheries sectors, Namibia, with an estimated DOI of US$ 313.3 million, experiences the greatest economic impact overall on account of the fisheries sector (Figure 12). South Africa and Angola, however, lead in terms of people employed by the BCLME (Figure 13). 102

32,477

15,921

37,775

40,000

35,000

30,000

25,000

20,000

15,000

10,000

5,000

0

Number of Jobs Generated by the BCLME

Angola

Namibia

South Africa

Figure 13: Number of Jobs Generated by the BCLME. Source: Sumaila (2015). Source: Sumaila (2015).

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