Economic valuation of species loss in the open sea

Although the oceans cover 70% of the surface of the planet few studies have considered the economic valuation of marine biodiversity, despite the importance of such information for marine management and conservation. This study uses a contingent valuation method to estimate the public's willingness to pay (WTP) to avoid loss in the number of marine species in the waters around the Azores archipelago. We estimated the marginal value associated with increased levels of species loss (10% and 25%) in five marine taxa (mammals, fish, algae, birds and invertebrates) and all marine species considered as a whole, via a face to face survey of residents and visitors to two Azorean islands. The results suggest small but statistically significant differences in the WTP to prevent losses in the different taxa (mammals = fish > birds = invertebrates = algae). The results also suggest a greater WTP to preserve all marine taxa as a whole, than for a series of individual marine taxa. The valuation of the ecosystem and taxa may be influenced by the maritime culture of the respondents, but despite this, the findings challenge the commonly held premise that charismatic taxa have a disproportionately strong influence on WTP, and they provide important insights into human preferences for biodiversity conservation.     

Protected areas, wildlife conservation, and local welfare

The establishment and expansion of protected areas in Africa have been motivated by the aspiration of increased wildlife abundance. However, during the past decades, this practice has been subject to a massive debate. While some claim that protected areas have failed in preserving African wildlife, others claim that existing protected areas are successful. This paper adds to this debate by presenting a bio-economic analysis of protected area expansion. The model considers a hunter-agrarian community located on the border of a protected area. An expansion of the protected area means less land for agricultural cultivation and hunting. Depending on the economic conditions of these activities, the model demonstrates that protected area expansion may reduce the degree of wildlife conservation. In addition, it may reduce the welfare of the local people.     

Demographic pressure and natural resources conservation

A field survey was carried out in the villages of Nlobesse'e at the Western periphery of the Dja Biosphere Reserve, South Cameroon, to evaluate the various effects that the increase in the local populations exert on the conservation of the natural resources of the reserve. Survey results show that the population was increasing rapidly at 40.00/00 per annum, with 61.54% of the total inhabitants originating from other parts of the country. Despite the rapid population growth, the population of the Kaka and Baka ethnic groups also known as the pigmies who have been noted by ECOFAC (Ecosystème Forestière d'Afrique Centrale) for having a marked negative impact on the conservation of the natural resources (because they depend mostly on the natural resources of the reserve for their livelihood and practice very little or no agriculture) were decreasing at a rate of 6.2%. Probably they sought better hunting, gathering and collecting conditions elsewhere in the reserve. Animal proteins originating from the reserve provide most of the animal proteins consumed by the households and the entire population of Nlobesse'e demands 44.4 kg of “bush meat” per day. It was also noted that the local population practiced very little agriculture in the reserve. Hunting and fishing, activities that have been noted for having a negative influence on the conservation of biodiversity contributed 15.2% and 11.2%, respectively, of the total income of the households. Other sources of income included: wages earned from the agro-plantation that contributed 40.3%, farming 24.2%, commerce 3% and others 4.58%. Merchant middlemen also referred to as “buyam sellam” and individuals with no commercial interest were the two main relay agents responsible for transporting natural resources out of Nlobesse'e. It would have been expected that the increasing population combined to the high incidence of poverty in the region (per capita income of 225 FCFA or $0.3 per day) would have exerted a high sustainability pressure on the conservation of reserve resources. However, this was not the case because of an agro-plantation in the area that provided the local population with the necessary income to buy foodstuff and other needed resources from far away areas. To maintain this trend, it is recommended that other sources of income such as the creation of small-scale enterprises and ecotourism should be encouraged in and around biospheres reserves.     

Spatial targeting of payments for environmental services: A tool for boosting conservation benefits

Payments for environmental services (PES) have become an increasingly popular market-based instrument to translate external, non-market environmental services into financial incentives for landowners to preserve the ecosystems that provide the services. However, lack of spatial differentiation in the targeting mechanism may lead to efficiency losses. Addressing this challenge, we construct an applied site selection tool, which takes into account three variables that vary in space: environmental services provided, risks of losing those services, and participation costs. Using data from Costa Rica's Nicoya Peninsula, we empirically test the tool's potential to increase the financial efficiency of the forest-focused PES program in place. Results show that, given a fixed budget, efficiency increases radically if per hectare payments are aligned to landowners' heterogeneity in participation costs, involving opportunity, transaction and direct costs of protection, respectively. Selecting sites based on environmental service potential also moderately increases efficiency. Overall additionality could in the best case be doubled, but remains generally limited due to current low deforestation risks prevailing in Costa Rica. To take advantage of the high efficiency potentials of flexible payments, we propose inverse auction systems as a cost-effective approach for the determination of micro-level participation costs.     

Substitution between water and other agricultural inputs: Implications for water conservation in a River Basin context

Substitution of irrigation water with other agricultural inputs could be an important means to conserve water in the face of growing pressures on water resources from both nonagricultural water demands and environmental water requirements. This paper discusses the potential of such substitution through an empirical analysis based on a multiple-input crop production function at the field and farm scales complemented with a numerical modeling exercise at the basin scale. Results from the crop production function analysis show that under both crop yield and net profit maximization, water is a substitute to other crop inputs for high-value crops, and is a complement to water for low-valued crops. At the basin scale, an integrated economic-hydrologic river basin model is used to analyze the role of other factors in crop input substitution, including the spatial connections among water sources and demands, hydro-agronomic conditions, and institutional settings for water allocation. Results show that in the case study area, the Maipo River basin in Chile, where water is very scarce, moving from the current, input-constrained, situation to full optimization of water resources leads to an increase in all crop inputs, including water. In that case, 301 million m³ of additional water use results in additional net profits of USD 11 million. However, if the water fee is raised by a factor of eight while overall basin irrigation profits are maintained at the original, baseline level, a reduction of water withdrawals by 326 million m³ is traded off with costs of USD 43.2 million for other inputs. Irrigation districts with a high share of low-value crops have a low potential for substituting water with other crop inputs. Therefore, investments for water substitution should also be kept low in these areas.     

Payments for agrobiodiversity conservation services for sustained on-farm utilization of plant and animal genetic resources

This paper discusses the potential application of Payment for Ecosystem Services-like schemes to tackle market failures associated with the public good characteristics of agrobiodiversity conservation services. So called payments for agrobiodiversity conservation services (PACS) would increase the private benefits from utilizing local plant and animal genetic resources on-farm through voluntary reward mechanisms, so as to sustain their on-farm conservation. Theoretical and applied insights about PACS are discussed and attention drawn to some of the challenges to be overcome in implementing PACS. In particular, these relate to the identification of potential buyers, the complex institutional setting in which PACS might operate and the articulation of a meaningful conservation goal based on a safe minimum standard approach. The latter is urgently needed, so as to ensure that additional agrobiodiversity services are generated. Relative to a fixed pricing approach, PACS schemes that seek to overcome information asymmetries through the use of conservation auctions may be associated with significant efficiency gains. However, potential trade-offs between ecological effectiveness, economic efficiency, and social equity considerations need to be carefully evaluated.     

Evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of biodiversity conservation spending

Evaluation of effectiveness and efficiency should be an integral component of biodiversity conservation strategies. We used Cost-Utility Analysis (CUA) and Threat Reduction Assessment (TRA) to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of individual Species Action Plans (SAPs) with regard to improving conservation status and reducing threats within the UK Biodiversity Action Plan. Spending was highly biassed towards vertebrates, in particular mammals and birds. Of 38 fully-costed SAPs, the top five most expensive SAPs accounted for almost 80% of the total money spent. Just over half of the SAPs studied had improved the conservation status of the species concerned, and one third of SAPs achieved at least a 50% reduction in threats. SAP cost was significantly positively related to improvement in conservation status but unrelated to threat reduction for that species. Effectiveness and efficiency were significantly correlated with one another in terms of threat reduction for different species, but there was no correlation between effectiveness and efficiency in terms of improving conservation status. Although conservation decisions should not be made solely on the outcome of such analyses, CUA and TRA can provide an important contribution to the evidence base to inform the development of more effective and efficient conservation strategies.     

Trade-offs between conservation and socio-economic objectives in managing a tropical marine ecosystem

Understanding the trade-off relationships between ecological, economic and social objectives is important in designing policies to manage or restore ecosystems. Using the northern South China Sea (NSCS) as a case study, we explore the trade-offs between conservation and socio-economic objectives in managing fisheries in tropical marine ecosystems. Using a numerical optimization routine and ecosystem modelling (Ecopath with Ecosim), the study shows that current management of the NSCS is sub-optimal both in terms of conservation and economic objectives. Therefore, improvement in both conservation status and economic benefits can be achieved by reducing fishing capacity. However, the implementation of conservation plans may be hindered by the reduced number of fisheries-related jobs and the lack of alternative livelihoods. Similar trade-offs are apparent in many tropical marine ecosystems. Thus, this paper supports claims from previous studies that solving the alternative livelihood problems appears to be a priority for improving management and conservation in these ecosystems. A buy-back scheme that is funded by fishers might be effective in reducing fishing capacity. However, public funds are required if management objectives focus strongly on conservation. This might be justified by the direct or indirect benefits to society that could be provided by well-conserved ecosystems. This study highlights the conflict between maximizing conservation and social objectives, although win-win solutions between conservation and economic objectives may be possible.     

能源消费、经济资本化与节能减排

本文借助面板协整技术考察能源消费与中国经济增长的关系,基于经济资本化视角经验分析中国节能减排战略的现实选择.研究结果显示:(1)能源消费与经济增长存在长期稳定关系,无论长期还是短期,“能源中性”假说均不成立;(2)地区间能源产出弹性差异较大,各地区适宜制定差别化的节能减排目标;(3)为增长而挖掘和重估各项资源经济价值的经济资本化模式不利于节能减排战略的实施.     

Accounting for the ecosystem services of migratory species: Quantifying migration support and spatial subsidies

Migratory species support ecosystem process and function in multiple areas, establishing ecological linkages between their different habitats. As they travel, migratory species also provide ecosystem services to people in many different locations. Previous research suggests there may be spatial mismatches between locations where humans use services and the ecosystems that produce them. This occurs with migratory species, between the areas that most support the species' population viability - and hence their long-term ability to provide services - and the locations where species provide the most ecosystem services. This paper presents a conceptual framework for estimating how much a particular location supports the provision of ecosystem services in other locations, and for estimating the extent to which local benefits are dependent upon other locations. We also describe a method for estimating the net payment, or subsidy, owed by or to a location that balances benefits received and support provided by locations throughout the migratory range of multiple species. The ability to quantify these spatial subsidies could provide a foundation for the establishment of markets that incentivize cross-jurisdictional cooperative management of migratory species. It could also provide a mechanism for resolving conflicts over the sustainable and equitable allocation of exploited migratory species.     

Socioeconomic predictors of forest use values in the Peruvian Amazon: A potential tool for biodiversity conservation

Conservation is a crisis discipline requiring rapid action with limited funds. This study examines the potential of socioeconomic variables to predict forest use values. If natural resource use can be predicted from socioeconomic data, conservation planners could rapidly identify and focus conservation programs on the sectors of local populations that most intensively utilize local flora and fauna. Families in three communities in the northern Peruvian Amazon were surveyed over a 6-month period. Data were collected on use of flora and fauna from six locally determined use categories (food, medicine and poisons, wood, weavings, adornments, and “other”) in forest types of three age classes (fallow fields—very young forests, young secondary forests, and old secondary forests). Forest use values were the dependant variables calculated in $/ha/year. Socioeconomic variables included: age, education, family size, residence time, land worked, land owned, number of fishing nets, chickens, pigs, cows, and/or mules owned (all proxies for productive assets), and level of ecological knowledge (ability of informants to correctly identify forest species and answer basic questions about their biology). Ordinary least square multiple regressions were run independently for each forest type. Regressions were also run separately for the two most valuable use categories, food and wood. Low R² adjusted values (all < 0.3) reflect the difficulty in predicting human behavior due to confounding variables and complex interactions. Residence time and a household's community of residence were the most significant predictors of forest use values. Households in Vista Alegre, the community with the highest density of people and smallest landholdings per household, extracted the highest value of forest products per hectare. The longer a family stayed in any community the higher the value of forest goods they extracted. If families that lived in an area longest are the most intensive extractors of forest products, they should be a major focus for conservation programming. In addition, the higher value of products extracted from forests by some families may make them more open to strategies seeking to protect long-term viability of the resources they utilize. The importance of residence time also indicates that planners need to account for changes in the resource use patterns of stakeholders over time.     

Economic integration and the environment: Effects on members and non-members

The paper analyses the effects of economic integration and national environmental policies in a three-country world. There are two factors of production, an environmental good and capital, which is internationally mobile. Two of the countries create an internal market. This is modelled by a reduction in mobility costs. This process of economic integration leads to a relocation of the factors of production. The welfare effects of factor relocation are analysed for different types of environmental policies. Special emphasis is placed on the issue of international externalities such as transboundary pollution spill-overs.     

Risk management instruments for debt driven conservation efforts: The case of India's Project Tiger

Project Tiger has been India's premier case of conservation success. Since mid 1990s select Project Tiger Reserves in India were chosen for intensive funding by the Global Environment Facility, the International Development Agency (IDA) and the Government of India under the ‘India Eco-Development Project’. This project marked a modest shift towards debt based funding. The GEF Project has become a benchmark for tiger conservation in India both in terms of management outcomes and scale and scope of funding. However in the absence of large-scale budgetary support or self-generating income flows, it becomes difficult for the GEF type of project to be replicated in other tiger reserves of the country. Debt instruments hold promise as enablers of conservation finance. The paper proposes issue of ‘tiger bonds’ to meet the financial requirements of tiger reserves. Though attractive as a debt instrument, a ‘tiger bond’ could nevertheless entail interest rate and default risks.Bioprospecting activities form good revenue sources for tiger reserves to pay off their debts. However bioprospecting activities do not provide assured returns to tiger reserves. Pharmaceutical companies that prospect for genetic resources and practice ‘real options’ approach to R&D investment planning, adopt multi-phased investment systems and sequential searches that gives them the flexibility to abandon R&D projects. From the point of view of genetic resource providing entities like Project Tiger Reserves, the ‘postponement value’ generated by real options, enables a drug company to tap substitutes for the genetic resources that form the subject matter of bioprospecting contracts. To obviate possible repayment risks by tiger reserves, the paper advocates the institution of ‘put bonds’ as a risk management tool for Project Tiger Reserves in order to hedge themselves against loan defaults arising from possible loss in bioprospecting income. The paper also brings out the mechanics of the issue of tiger bonds in the Indian context. It is argued that a put bond not only hedges default risks but would also aid ‘value discovery’ and payment for ecosystem services as far as the Project Tiger Reserves of India are concerned.     

Biological conservation in dynamic agricultural landscapes: Effectiveness of public policies and trade-offs with agricultural production

Land use change and land management intensification are major drivers of biodiversity loss, especially in agricultural landscapes, that cover a large and increasing share of the world's surface. Incentive-based agri-environmental policies are designed to influence farmers' land-use decisions in order to mitigate environmental degradation. This paper evaluates the effectiveness of agri-environmental schemes for biological conservation in a dynamic agricultural landscape under economic uncertainty. We develop a dynamic ecological economic model of agricultural land-use and spatially explicit population dynamics. We then relate policies (subsidies to grassland, taxation of agricultural intensity) to the ecological outcome (probability of persistence of a species of interest). We also analyze the associated trade-offs between agricultural production (in value) and biological conservation (in probability of persistence) at the landscape scale.     

Animal rationality and implications for resource management: the case of biological reserves for moose and pine

One logical implication of the Darwinian hypothesis of ‘survival of the fittest’ is that animals exhibit optimizing behavior. Surprisingly, this has not been included in the resource economics literature. This paper explores the implications of optimizing behavior in a model where moose face migration decisions and humans wish to keep moose out of an area to protect young pine trees. The results show that if moose are rational, a given hunting effort will lead to better outcomes for humans than if the moose only focus on harvesting opportunities. This finding suggests that the validity of the standard assumption that animal migration behavior is density-dependent should be re-examined.      

Factors determining awareness and knowledge of aquatic invasive species

Public perceptions of invasive species may influence policies and programs initiated by public and private stakeholders. We investigate the determinants of the public's awareness and knowledge of invasive species as few studies have examined this relationship. We focus on aquatic invasive species (AIS) and employ survey data from property owners in a lake district. A major contribution is that we estimate a mixed trivariate binary-ordered probit regression model that accommodates correlations among unobserved characteristics, produces statistically more efficient estimates, and allows a more proper investigation of the probability of knowledge conditional on awareness. Our results provide insights for invasive species education and management programs. We find that individuals are more likely to be aware of AIS if they participate in water-based recreation, visit lakes outside their area, have a boat, belong to a lake association, or are college educated. This has a policy implication: Given high levels of AIS awareness by those most involved in activities around lakes and those with a higher education, it may be beneficial to target informational campaigns at those who do not display these characteristics, so that they can better make informed decisions about whether to support and expend money on invasive species management programs.     

Bioeconomic modeling for control of weeds in natural environments

When a weed invasion is first discovered a decision has to be made on whether to attempt to eradicate it, contain it or do nothing. Ideally, these decisions should be based on a complete benefit-cost analysis, but this is often not possible. A partial analysis, combining knowledge of the rate of spread, seedbank longevity, costs of control and techniques of economic analysis, can assist in making a good decision. This paper presents a decision model to determine when immediate eradication of a weed should be attempted, or more generally whether weed control should be attempted at all. The technique is based on identifying two ‘switching points’: the invasion size at which it is no longer optimal to attempt eradication but where containment may be an option; and the invasion size at which it becomes optimal to apply no form of control at all. The model is applied to a woody perennial weed in a natural environment. The results show that seedbank longevity is the main constraint on the maximum eradicable area and spread rate is the main constraint on the maximum containment area. Stochastic simulations are undertaken to derive probability distributions of costs which are than used to evaluate the effect of budget constraints on areas that can be eradicated. We find that, in the absence of a budget constraint, it may be desirable to eradicate invasions from areas as large as 8000 ha, but when budget constraints typical of those faced by agencies in Australia are introduced, feasible eradicable areas are less than 1000 ha.     

Economic prosperity, biodiversity conservation, and the environmental Kuznets curve

Many conservationists contend that economic growth and biodiversity conservation are incompatible goals. Some economists contest this viewpoint, arguing that wealthier countries have the luxury of investing more heavily in efforts to conserve biodiversity. Under this assumption, we expect a U-shaped relationship between per capita wealth and proportion of species conserved. We test this environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) using estimates of per capita income and deforestation rates (index of biodiversity threat) for 35 tropical countries. A prior analysis [Dietz, S., Adger, W.N., 2003. Economic growth, biodiversity loss and conservation effort. Journal of Environmental Management, 68:23-35] using conventional regression techniques failed to provide any support for the parabolic relationship predicted by the EKC hypothesis. Here, we introduce the use of quantile regression and spatial filtering to reanalyze this data, addressing issues of heteroskedasticity and spatial autocorrelation. We note that preliminary analysis using these methods provides some initial evidence for an EKC. However, a series of panel analyses with country-specific dummy variables eliminated or even reversed much of this support. A closer examination of conservation practices and environmental indicators within the countries, particularly those countries that drove our initial support, suggests that wealth is not a reliable indicator of improved conservation practice. Our findings indicate that an EKC for biodiversity is overly simplistic and further exploration is required to fully understand the mechanisms by which income affects biodiversity.     

Willingness to pay for other species' well-being

Benefit-cost analysis of environmental policies typically focuses on benefits to human health and well-being. For other species, economists have attempted to measure human WTP for changes in the numbers of individuals for different types of wildlife, and to preserve biodiversity. When it comes to humans' WTP for improvements in the quality-of-life for other species, however, the evidence is limited. Morbidity and quality-of-life considerations may be particularly important to the task of valuing non-fatal harm to wildlife in the wake of an environmental disaster. We argue that the other species morbidity-reduction component of WTP should be calculated net of any “outrage” component associated with the cause of the harm. This net WTP is likely to be correlated with the premium that people are willing to pay for chicken products from birds for which the quality-of-life has been enhanced by improved animal welfare measures. This paper uses a conjoint choice stated preference survey to reveal the nature of systematic heterogeneity in preferences for “humanely raised” versus “conventionally raised” chicken. We also use latent class analysis to distinguish between two classes of people—those who are willing to pay a premium for humanely raised chicken, and those who are not.