A market-driven approach to the optimal stocking problem on African game ranches

Abstract

As the growing game ranch industry in Africa becomes more sophisticated so the demand grows for tools and techniques that help achieve greater profits. Within the constraints imposed by the need to meet ecological and other requirements in these multispecies systems, there is scope for manipulating the balance of species to meet economic objectives. A new model and approach centred on marketable packages is proposed to address much of the inadequacies of current practice and previous approaches to the problem. The solution method uses column-generation techniques to generate optimal hunting and live sales packages. Optimal stocking rates for each species then follow. The procedure is illustrated for a typical 4000 ha game farm in a semi-arid region.

Keywords:

• environmental studies
• agriculture
• developing countries

Acknowledgements

Following the suggestions of an anonymous referee, the original formulation of the package rules was simplified. The referee is also thanked for other comments that have led to the enhancement of this paper.