Publication: Measuring the Local Economic Impacts of Nature-Based Tourism in Uganda
Loading...
Published
2025-05-29
ISSN
Date
2025-05-29
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
This study addresses the critical connection between Uganda’s protected areas and tourism and estimates the economic impact of tourism on these sites and their surrounding communities. The primary audience of this report is decision-makers such as the ministry of tourism, protected area management authorities, local authorities, and task teams supporting nature-based tourism. In Uganda, where tens of thousands of tourists visit protected areas annually, there is little information on the economic implications of nature-based tourism. This hinders the ability of tourism authorities, protected area managers, and the government to optimize the economic value of protected areas and their associated benefits.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2025. Measuring the Local Economic Impacts of Nature-Based Tourism in Uganda. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/43256 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Measuring the Local Economic Impacts of Nature-Based Tourism in Madagascar(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-02-19)This study examines the crucial relationship between Madagascar's protected areas and tourism, estimating the economic impact on these sites and their surrounding communities. It highlights the lack of data on the economic implications of nature-based tourism, which hinders the ability of tourism authorities, protected area managers, and the government to optimize the economic value of protected areas. The study introduces the Protected Area Tourism Local Economy-Wide Impact Evaluation (LEWIE) "Lite" tool to address this knowledge gap. LEWIE-LITE quantifies both direct and indirect impacts of tourist spending on local economies, aiding in policy formulation on tourism impacts, park spending, community revenue sharing, and complementary policies for protected areas.Publication Zambia : Economic and Poverty Impact of Nature-based Tourism(Washington, DC, 2007-12)This study estimates the contribution of nature-based tourism in Zambia to economic growth and poverty reduction as well as to the sustainability of the management of the wildlife estate. The Zambian Government has identified tourism along with agriculture, mining and manufacturing as the most important sectors for economic development in its various planning documents, including the 2007 Fifth National Development Plan (FNDP). This report is organized into three sections: chapters two and three characterize the tourism industry and the economic impact of nature tourists. Using a variety of sources of information, the two chapters profile the tourism industry in Zambia and analyze the barriers to growth. The chapter four investigates the welfare of communities living in game management area (GMAs) around national parks. These communities are the most likely to suffer from wildlife conflicts and/or benefit from economic activities in and around the parks. A household survey compares the welfare of communities living in GMAs with ordinary rural communities. The chapter five analyzes the performance of Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) during its first five year of existence, and explores the current state of the management of the wildlife estate and its potential to contribute to economic growth through tourism.Publication Tools and Resources for Nature-Based Tourism - Second Edition(Washington, DC, 2023-05-30)Nature-based tourism (NBT) plays an important role in sustainable development. It can support poverty alleviation, economic growth, and biodiversity conservation and contribute to key global agreements and frameworks, including the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. NBT’s singular potential to create jobs and growth, while protecting wildlife and ecosystems, makes it an enticing prospect for developing countries seeking to align those interests. The World Bank commissioned a comprehensive review of the tools and knowledge resources that could be used by practitioners in the field of NBT, to prepare and implement projects that promote sustainable NBT practices and policies. Impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic have reverberated across the tourism sector since first publication of this report in July 2020. Those working in nature-based tourism, from tour operators to community organizations to protected area authorities, have faced particular challenges – and opportunities – as tourism revenues plummeted and slowly rebound. This second edition in 2022 aims to collect and share the many resources that have emerged to support nature-based tourism destinations and stakeholders to recover and reset in the face of the pandemic, including a new chapter on COVID-19 resources.Publication Nature-based Solutions for Beach Stabilization: Opportunities for the Tourism Sector(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-09-02)This report explores nature-based solutions (NBS) for beach stabilization within the Blue Economy framework, emphasizing sustainable ocean resource use for economic growth and ecosystem health. Coastal tourism, vital to developing regions and SIDS, benefits from these strategies. Targeting governments and tourism stakeholders, the report offers practical approaches to combat beach erosion, stressing that direct interventions should follow evaluation of non-intervention options. It educates the tourism sector on how NBS can enhance climate resilience and tourism outcomes, detailing erosion processes and methods with added social, environmental, and economic benefits for vulnerable communities with limited resources.Publication Promoting Nature-Based Tourism for Management of Protected Areas and Elephant Conservation in Sri Lanka(Washington, DC, 2010-06)Sri Lanka's ten-year development framework aims at accelerating economic growth while ensuring a path of sustainable development and prioritizing conservation of the country's natural heritage. It is in this context that this policy note seeks to examine the scope for enhancing protection of Sri Lanka's natural assets through nature based tourism as an instrument for conservation with a specific focus on elephant conservation. This study identifies development opportunities that increase tourism revenues and offers an assessment of the human/elephant conflict, which is the primary impediment to long term elephant conservation.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Morocco Country Climate and Development Report(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-10)Climate change poses a serious threat to Morocco’s economic growth and human potential but with the right investments and policies in place, a more sustainable future is possible. A new World Bank diagnostic tool, The Country Climate and Development Report explores the linkages between climate and development and identifies priority actions to build resilience and reduce carbon emissions, while supporting economic growth and reducing poverty. The Morocco climate report identifies three priority areas – tackling water scarcity and droughts; enhancing resilience to floods; and decarbonizing the economy. The report also looks at the cross-cutting issues of financing, governance, and equity. The underlying message in the report is that if Morocco invests in climate action now and takes the appropriate policy measures, the benefits will be immense. Ambitious climate actions will help to revitalize rural areas, create new jobs and position the Kingdom as a green industrial hub, while also helping Morocco to reach its broader development goals. The report identifies key pathways to decarbonize the economy, reducing reliance on fossil fuels and massively deploying solar and wind power. The report estimates that total investment needed to put Morocco firmly on a resilient and low carbon pathway by the 2050s would be around $78 billion in present dollar value. The good news is that these investments could be gradual and that with the appropriate policies in place, the private sector could shoulder much of the cost.Publication Uganda Country Climate and Development Report(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-09-10)The Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) for Uganda examines the interplay between climate change and development. It presents how addressing climate change can support achieving the goals in Uganda’s Vision 2040 and Ten-Fold Growth Strategy, and help propel the country to upper-middle-income status. Uganda is the 14th most vulnerable nation to climate change, yet it is 163rd in readiness to address these risks, facing threats such as droughts and floods. The report highlights that, of the poorest households exposed to climate change, 80 percent already experience income loss from climate shocks. GDP could also drop by up to 3.1 percent by 2050 without additional climate action. Climate change poses numerous challenges, including increased variability in crop yields, potential internal climate migration of 12 million people by 2050, notable drop in labor productivity due to heat stress, increased health risks from waterborne diseases and malaria, and exposure of the country’s physical infrastructure to extreme climate events. To combat these challenges, the report recommends transitioning to a low-carbon, climate-resilient growth path by implementing four multisectoral intervention packages. These include boosting resilience through jobs for youth and services for the poor; promoting resilient and productive agriculture and natural resources with lower GHG emissions; developing climate-responsive energy, transport, and digital infrastructure; and fostering planned and climate-positive urbanization. Additionally, the report calls for whole-of-economy measures that strengthen governance of climate action, enhance preparedness for climate hazards including through improved early warning systems, operationalization of the national climate finance strategy, and incentivizing private sector participation. By implementing these intervention packages and whole-of-economy measures, Uganda can lower its risk to climate change and achieve sustainable economic growth.Publication Kenya Country Climate and Development Report(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-11-16)The Kenya Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) aims to identify the impact of climate change on Kenya’s economy. Through robust and rigorous analyses that cover climate impact modeling across multiple scenarios and the overall economy, sectoral issues, investment needs and potential sources of financing, the CCDR aims to identify high impact intervention areas that would support climate positive development. Action against climate change is imperative to avoid setting back Kenya’s aspiration of being an upper-middle-income country and reducing poverty in the next decade. In a business-as-usual scenario, inaction under different climate futures could dampen real GDP by 1.25 to 2.4 percent by 2030 and 3.61 to 7.25 percent by 2050 compared to the baseline. Climate impacts Kenya’s human, natural and physical capital and the impacts vary by region. By 2050, no climate action could also result in 1.1 million additional poor compared to the baseline under the pessimistic climate scenario, with communities in the arid and semi-arid areas being most hard-hit. Kenya can also be a key player in the global climate solutions arena if it maintains a low-carbon growth path. Kenya stands out among African and lower-middle-income countries due to its well-diversified and primarily low-carbon energy mix, with about 90 percent of electricity generation coming from renewable resources. Kenya could also generate carbon offsets through large-scale landscape restoration. The CCDR identifies five key action areas that could enable Kenya to meet its growth aspirations in an inclusive and climate-resilient manner. The three multisectoral action areas are: managing water, land, and forest for climate-resilient agriculture and rural economies; delivering people-centered resilience with climate-informed basic services and urbanization; and strengthening Kenya’s competitiveness in international markets through shifts in energy, transport, and digital systems. It is necessary to complement these the three action areas with two crosscutting actions areas - improving integration and coordination of climate action in policy, planning, and investment decision-making across the economy, and developing and operationalizing policy measures for mobilizing climate finance from private and public sector. Implementing these action areas should account for regional differences to climate risk exposure.Publication Dominican Republic Country Climate and Development Report(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-11-30)The Dominican Republic has made significant progress in boosting economic growth and reducing poverty, but it still faces challenges to achieve inclusive and equitable development, increase productivity, and improve the competitiveness and sustainability of primary sectors like agriculture, water, tourism, and energy. The National Development Strategy (NDS) and the National Multi‑Year Public Sector Plan (NPSP) aim to address development and climate challenges and promote a green, inclusive and resilient future. The DR is highly vulnerable to climate change, which is likely to compound existing development challenges. By 2050, climate change impacts are expected to decrease labor productivity and affect health, crop yields, tourism, infrastructure capital, and natural ecosystems such as forests and coastal areas. Climate change also poses risks to the financial system such as the banking sector's heightened credit exposure to tropical cyclones and droughts. Although the DR has a small carbon footprint, the country's GHG emissions have been rising, mainly in the energy, waste, and agricultural sectors. Fostering a low‑carbon growth path can support the country's climate change goals while bringing important development co‑benefits. The Dominican Republic CCDR employs a version of the MANAGE model. This CCDR further extends the model to incorporate the path of emissions from key sectors (transport, energy, AFOLU), and to incorporate DR‑specific climate damage functions to introduce the impact of climate change on the economy.Publication Jobs in a Changing Climate: Insights from World Bank Group Country Climate and Development Reports Covering 93 Economies(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-11-05)The World Bank Group’s Country Climate and Development Reports (CCDRs) provide a crosscutting look at how countries’ development prospects, and the job opportunities they offer to their people, can be threatened by climate impacts and supported by climate policies. Climate change and policies affect jobs through impacts on productivity, energy and material efficiency, and physical, human, and natural capital. They can also transform employment opportunities, especially through complementary measures that help workers and firms adapt to and benefit from new technologies and production practices. Prepared by the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), CCDRs integrate country perspectives, climate science and economic modeling, private sector information, and policy analysis to assess how countries can successfully grow and develop their economies and create jobs despite increasing climate risks and while achieving their climate objectives and commitments. Each CCDR starts from the country’s development priorities, opportunities, and challenges, and is developed in close consultation with governments, businesses, and civil society, ensuring the recommendations reflect national priorities. By combining evidence on adaptation, resilience, and emissions pathways, CCDRs highlight where climate action can reinforce development and job creation, and where targeted policies are needed to manage risks and smooth labor market transitions. Taken together, these elements can help create local jobs, ensure economic transitions are just and inclusive, and equip workers and firms to navigate the disruptions and opportunities of a changing climate and changing technologies.