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Damania, Richard

Sustainable Development Practice Group, The World Bank
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Development Economics, Environmental Economics, Natural Resource Economics, Agricultural Economics, Water Economics, Game Theory
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Last updated: November 29, 2023
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Richard Damania is the Chief Economist of the Sustainable Development Practice Group. He has held several positions in the World Bank including as Senior Economic Advisor in the Water Practice, Lead Economist in the Africa Region’s Sustainable Development Department, in the South Asia and Latin America and Caribbean Regions of the World Bank. His work has spanned across multiple sectors and has helped the World Bank become an acknowledged thought-leader on matters relating to environment, water and the economy. Prior to joining the World Bank he held positions in academia and has published extensively with over 100 papers in scientific journals.
Citations 33 Scopus

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2015 - 20191
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Sub-Saharan Africa: Africa transport × Sustainable Development Goals: SDG 15: Life on Land × Item Type: Publication ×

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    When Good Conservation Becomes Good Economics: Kenya’s Vanishing Herds
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-10-07) Desbureaux, Sebastien; Damania, Richard; Scandizzo, Pasquale Lucio; Mikou, Mehdi; Gohil, Deepali; Said, Mohammed
    It is no exaggeration to state that Kenya’s wildlife has done much to shape the image and development fortunes of the country. Today tourism is among Kenya’s top sources of foreign exchange, dominates the service sector, and contributes significantly to employment, especially in rural areas where economic opportunities are limited. The typical international tourist arrives on a package tour that may include a safari, a visit to the beach, or both. It is safari tourism, however, that generates the most employment and economic activity across the country. But the wildlife that has lured travelers to Kenya by the planeload is in dramatic decline. In the past three decades, the country has lost more than half of its wildlife. Wild herds that once roamed freely across the borders of Kenya and Tanzania have shrunk dramatically in numbers and vanished completely from much of the North. Perhaps most troubling is that recent monitoring of wildlife populations suggests that long-term declines of many of the charismatic species that attract tourists like lions, elephants, giraffes, impalas, and others are occurring at the same rates within the country’s national parks as outside of these protected areas. This report identifies with greater precision the drivers of land conversion from natural habitats to other uses, and examines the extent to which land conversion leads to the extirpation of wildlife and the loss of tourism incomes.