Who Cares about Biodiversity? Optimal Conservation and Transboundary Biodiversity Externalities

The Convention on Biological Diversity’s (2010) target to reduce the rate of biodiversity loss was achieved by very few countries. Why? We use the theory of conservation implicit in the Hotelling model of non-renewable resource pricing to analyze the problem, distinguishing between the benefits to countries where conservation takes place, and to other countries. We estimate models for three taxonomic groups, and find that while individual countries value conservation within their borders, in poor countries this effect is dominated by the negative impact of income growth. International concessional financial contributions to conservation in poor countries are found to be statistically insignificant. We conclude that countries care about the biodiversity within their national borders, but only when development priorities permit, and only when it becomes scarce enough that its value grows more rapidly than the return on alternative assets. There is little evidence that high income countries yet care sufficiently about biodiversity in the places where it is most threatened to affect conservation outcomes there.     

Threshold effects and incentives for the conservation of biodiversity

Biological diversity is a central component of the stock of natural capital on which all economic development is based. Other things being equal, loss of biologically diversity implies loss of development potential, and its conservation through sustainable use or outright protection implies the protection of that potential. One characteristics of biodiversity loss of especial importance is that biodiversity loss, more than any other current environmental problem, is associated with ecological threshold effects. The paper explores the implication of this characteristics for the properties of a biodiversity conservation strategy.     

Biodiversity value and the optimal location of forest conservation sites in Southern Finland

Safeguarding biodiversity has been one of the most important issues in environmental and forest policies since the 1990s. In Southern Finland, decisions concerning further actions for the preservation of forest biodiversity will be made in the coming years. To support policy making, we present a multi-regional model that is applicable in determining the economically optimal regional allocation of conservation sites. Three habitat quality models are evaluated to calculate habitat quality indices used as a surrogate for a biodiversity value in a forest sector model. The scenarios presented provide information about the economic impacts of conservation choices on the forest sector. The overall economic impacts of conservation depend on its scale and regional allocation. Conserving land with high biodiversity value can have less adverse impact on the forest sector than conservation of typical commercial forest sites. When optimizing conservation set-asides, we found that set-asides targeted to certain regions possessing higher/lower than average relative share of ecologically valuable land, caused lower/higher adverse economic impacts on the forest sector. Because it is expensive to search land suitable for conservation, these regions could be respectively favoured/avoided when asking forest owners to offer their land for the new conservation program in Southern Finland, which will be based on voluntariness.     

Conservation of biodiversity and economic development: The concept of transferable development rights

For ecological and economic reasons it is more cost effective to conserve habitats rather than species, and hence biodiversity conservation becomes a land use issue. Since in developing countries, land is the most important productive asset, the opportunity costs of conservation are forgone development, while the benefits from conservation are distant and largely external to the host country. The concept of transferable development rights (TDRs), which has been extensively applied to conservation of historical buildings in urban areas, is extended and adapted here to the conservation of biodiversity, both within a country and globally. Creation of a market for TDRs makes effective the latent demand for and supply of biodiversity conservation and generates benefits for both the supplier (developing countries) and the demander (developed countries). The paper explores the conditions and public interventions necessary for the creation of an active market for TDRs. It also proposes a number of mechanisms such as credits and offsets for purchase of TDRs against domestic regulations and conservation taxes in the developed countries.     

参与性生物多样性保护和利用

在依靠政府、科学家通过建立自然保护区、物种资源基因库等传统形式实施生物多样性保护外、更要注重其公众的参与，并实施资源的可持续利用措施。本文以浙江省临安县临目乡为例，分析了参与性生物多样性保护和利用的特征与方式以及两者的相互关系。指出它是实现山区资源、经济和环境可持续发展的一条成功之路。     

The efficiency of voluntary incentive policies for preventing biodiversity loss

Habitat loss is a primary cause of loss of biodiversity but conserving habitat for species presents challenges. Land parcels differ in their ability to produce returns for landowners and landowners may have private information about the value of the land to them. Land parcels also differ in the type and quality of habitat and the spatial pattern of land use across multiple landowners is important for determining the conservation value of parcels. This paper analyzes the relative efficiency of simple voluntary incentive-based policies in achieving biodiversity conservation objectives. This topic is important not just for biodiversity conservation but for any effort to provide a public good requiring coordination across multiple decision-makers who have some degree of private information. We develop a method that integrates spatially explicit data, an econometric model of private land-use decisions, landscape simulations, a biological model of biodiversity as a function of landscape pattern, and an algorithm that estimates the set of efficient solutions. These methods allow us to simulate landowner responses to policies, measure the consequences of these decisions for biodiversity conservation, and compare these outcomes to efficient outcomes to show the relative efficiency of various policy approaches. We find substantial differences in biodiversity conservation scores generated by simple voluntary incentive-based policies and efficient solutions. The performance of incentive-based policies is particularly poor at low levels of the conservation budget where spatial fragmentation of conserved parcels is a large concern. Performance can be improved by encouraging agglomeration of conserved habitat and by incorporating basic biological information, such as that on rare habitats, into the selection criteria.     

BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION AND BIOTECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENTS

This paper assesses the role of Biotechnology Development Agreements (BDAs) in creating incentives to conserve biodiversity. A major cause of species loss is the conversion of tropical forests to crop and pasture land. Biodiversity conservation, therefore, fundamentally depends on the economics of agricultural land use in developing countries. BDAs can play only a limited role in a comprehensive strategy to increase incentives for biodiversity conservation. Policymakers must examine biodiversity policies in the broader context of land tenure, rural poverty, and agricultural development in tropical countries .     

漓江流域风景区生物多样性现状与保护对策研究

本文讨论了漓江风景名胜区及漓江源的生物多样性现状和存在的问题,论述了生物多样性与漓江风景区旅游发展的密切关系,提出了漓江流域生物多样性保护的具体措施,对漓江流域生物多样性保护和漓江风景名胜区旅游可持续发展具有实际指导意义.     

文化产业园区创新要素、创新环境与创新绩效:一个有调节的中介作用模型

基于产业集聚的观点,以创意人才为研究对象,探讨文化园区创新要素对创新绩效的影响机制,并探究创新环境的中介作用,检验政策配置的调节作用。建立基于文化产业园区创新要素与创新绩效的调节中介作用模型,运用问卷调查进行实证分析。结果表明:①创新要素对创新环境具有显著正向影响,但创新要素的三个维度中,社会网络、个人成长对创新绩效影响不显著;②创新要素中的信息共享与知识溢出维度和创新绩效直接显著,而个人能力通过创新环境中介作用影响创新产出;③政策配置在创新环境和创新绩效的中介效应中起到正向调节作用,政策支持力度越高对创新产出的影响越大。因此,政府应该引导建立以创新为导向的要素集聚,通过营造良好的创新氛围,完善社会网络结构,降低区域的创新阻力,进而提升文化创造力的集聚与外溢能力。     

淮河源旅游产业发展对生物多样性保护的影响研究

淮河源是我国南北过渡地带生物多样性最丰富的地区之一,近年来快速发展的旅游业对生物多样性保护构成了严重威胁,其主要原因是法规制度不健全、缺乏科学的总体规划与专业管理人员、缺乏有效的社区参与机制及旅游收益转化机制、科普宣教功能不足、部分旅游发展政策不合理、旅游活动对生物多样性的影响评价严重不足。明确区域功能、加强旅游活动中的生物多样性保护宣教、持续发展生态旅游地周边社区经济、完善旅游活动对生物多样性的影响评价、严格旅游活动中的生物多样性保护执法是促进淮河源旅游产业与生物多样性保护协调发展的主要途径。     

澳大利亚的矿业生物多样性管理及其启示

作为矿产资源开发的受益者、生物多样性的影响者,履行环境责任,加强生物多样性保护和管理是矿业企业责无旁贷的义务。生物多样性管理过程就是一个避免影响、降低影响、修正影响和弥补影响的过程。澳大利亚矿业企业在生物多样性管理方面,积累了成功的经验,为其他国家和地区的矿业企业加强生物多样性管理,提升复垦质量,提供了典型示范。     

Are There Income Effects on Global Willingness to Pay for Biodiversity Conservation?

This paper is concerned with the empirical relationship between biodiversity conservation values and income. We use random effects panel models to examine the effects of income, and then GDP per capita, on willingness to pay for habitat and biodiversity conservation. In a meta-analysis, 145 Willingness To Pay estimates for biodiversity conservation where existence value plays a major role were collected from 46 contingent valuation studies across six continents. Other effects included in the meta-analysis were the study year; habitat type; continent; scope as presented to respondents; whether WTP bids were for preventing a deterioration or gaining an improvement in conservation, whether a specific species or specific habitat was protected; whether the questionnaire used a dichotomous choice or an open-ended format; distribution format; and the choice of payment vehicle. GDP per capita seemed to perform as well as an explanatory variable as respondent’s mean stated income, indicating that it is wealth in society as a whole which determines variations in WTP. Even if large variation, our main conclusion is, that the demand for biodiversity conservation rises with a nation’s wealth, but the income elasticity of willingness to pay is less than one.     

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.     

基于InVEST-MCR复合模型的城市 绿色空间生境网络格局构建研究

城市化进程的不断加快影响了城市绿色空间的生境 质量,城市生物多样性受到极大威胁。构建城市范围内的多物 种综合生境网络能够整合现有的城市绿色空间格局,促进生物 多样性保护与发育。以北京市丰台区为例,面向生物多样性保 护与城市绿色空间发展提出了基于InVEST-MCR复合模型的 城市绿色空间生境网络格局构建方法体系：即以生境类型为导 向选取区域内生物多样性保护的焦点物种,通过大数据选取焦 点物种的栖息源地,基于InVEST模型生境质量模块选取潜在 栖息地(汇)并生成生境网络构建阻力面,采用最小累计阻力 模型(MCR)构建丰台区城市绿色空间生境网络。研究结果明 确了丰台区的生境质量现状与未来生境网络发展脉络,为城市 绿色空间生境网络构建提供了新方法,为丰台区绿地空间格局 规划与生物多样性保护提供了参考框架。     

Amenity driven price effects and conservation reserve site selection: A dynamic linear integer programming approach

Most conservation reserve design models presented in the literature are static and ignore the dynamic economic aspects of site selection. Typically conservation programs operate under time-related (e.g. annual) budgets and purchase land over time in a sequential manner. The uncertainty of land development has been incorporated in a few dynamic reserve selection formulations using stochastic dynamic programming. However, the existing formulations do not explicitly deal with inter-temporal price and location linkages. We address this issue here and present a two-period linear integer programming model for conservation reserve design that incorporates amenity driven price feedback effects inherent in the reserve development problem. In addition, the model includes spatial and ecological criteria. We then use this model to answer the question “How suboptimal is ignoring amenity driven price effects in reserve design models?” We apply the model to artificially generated data sets and compare the results with the results of an iterated static model that considers only one period at a time. We find that the dynamic model with price feedback effects selects sites at a lower per-site cost. The policy implication of this finding is that conservation programs should avoid purchasing land in the same neighborhood over multiple time periods.     

The biodiversity conservation game with heterogeneous countries

Biodiversity is an essential resource, which we classify as conditionally-renewable. In order to achieve conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity virtually all nation states signed the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity. In this paper we investigate how the heterogeneity of countries in regard to ecosystems and wealth influences the stability of international biodiversity conservation agreements both without and with transfers. We further examine the effect of different degrees of ecosystem substitutability. We model a coalition formation game with players that have a continuous conservation choice. The conservation benefit is dependent on wealth and ecosystem quality. Aggregation of global benefits respects differences in ecosystem substitutability. In case of transfers, a fund redistributes coalition benefits according to a sharing rule. The main finding is that in the absence of transfers, compared to the homogeneous situation, heterogeneity in ecosystems and wealth reduces the size of a stable coalition. The destabilising effect is stronger the higher the ecosystem substitutability. Optimal transfers facilitate a large stable coalition.     

Alternative targets and economic efficiency of selecting protected areas for biodiversity conservation in boreal forest

We examine the relative merits of alternative forest biodiversity targets, which give different weights to species according to their conservation status and abundance. A site selection framework is used for choosing the habitat-protection strategy that maximizes biodiversity subject to an upper bound on funding with six alternative conservation goals. By using Finnish data on old-growth forests, we found that alternative conservation goals yield different benefit-cost tradeoffs. Goals relying on complementarity between protected stands result in great marginal costs at a high conservation level. Therefore, under these conditions it may not be economically efficient to establish a large conservation network to protect all species in a given area. In contrast, a large conservation network is more likely to be justified when the habitat-protection strategy focuses on species abundance. The trade-offs between alternative objectives are explicitly measured by incrementally varying the weights given to the species. We found that the targets for all species representation and species abundance can largely be met simultaneously. Protecting red-listed species reduces overall species coverage and species abundance particularly at low budget levels.     

A landscape approach for assessing the biodiversity value of indigenous forest remnants: Case study of the Manawatu/Wanganui region of New Zealand

To halt the decline of biodiversity in New Zealand, the government has formulated a strategy of maintaining and restoring a full range of remaining natural habitats to a healthy functioning state. Many indigenous forest remnants exist on private land, and these could be utilised to increase biodiversity. Resources for conservation of forest remnants are limited, so they must be used wisely to deliver the greatest possible biodiversity gain. This paper presents a rapid method for valuing the biodiversity of a region's indigenous forest remnants to help prioritise conservation resources. The region is divided into environmentally distinct areas called land environments. A detailed land-cover map is derived from satellite imagery and used to estimate the proportion of natural habitats remaining in each land environment; from this the biodiversity value of any forest remnant may be calculated. The method is rapid and does not require detailed biodiversity information. When combined with conservation costs, it may be used to create a priority list of forest remnants for conservation. The Manawatu/Wanganui region of New Zealand is used as a case study to demonstrate the method.     

Do we really care about Biodiversity?

This paper addresses from an economic perspective the issue of global biodiversity conservation. It challenges the perception that the world really cares a great deal about biodiversity and is prepared to pay the full cost of maintaining this stock of natural capital. Despite the existence of a plethora of international agreements there still seems to be a global ‘deficit of care’ surrounding efforts to combat challenges such as those posed by global warming and biodiversity conservation. More light can be thrown on the degree of care by measuring both the actual expenditures and the stated willingness to pay for biodiversity conservation. However, actual expenditures are much lower than willingness to pay estimates recorded in the published literature. Using the criteria that the ‘right’ amount of conservation effort is one where the marginal economic benefits from conservation just equal the marginal costs of conservation, the paper explores the biodiversity conservation conundrum and concluded that, on the available evidence, the world does not care too much about this natural capital stock and bequests to future generations. An erratum to this article can be found at     

Spatial patterns and economic contributions of mining and tourism in biodiversity hotspots: A case study in China

Mining activities and tourism are both growing fast in biodiversity intense areas globally. However, the dynamic and interactions between mining and tourism when they both occur in biodiversity hotspots, and how they together may impact the economy and environment in these biodiversity rich areas, remain unclear. This paper examined how the two industries interact in terms of their economic contributions and spatial patterns in a biodiversity hotspot, Yunnan, China. We used correlation analyses to measure the relationships between mining activities, tourism visits and local gross domestic productions. We also employed a distance-based technique to investigate the nature of any dependency between mining and tourism sites. Results showed that mining activities tend to be in relatively fluent areas while tourism tends to occur in less developed areas. Our results showed that the location of tourism and mining sites are likely to be close to one another but the two industries usually perform better economically when they are apart from each other. These findings can provide insights on how mining and tourism together may impact the economy and environment in biodiversity rich areas, and provide important information for managers and planners on balancing mining and tourism development in these areas.