Wildlife viewing: The impact of money-back guarantees

Wildlife sightings are not always guaranteed. To address this risk, tour operators often offer a money-back guarantee as a refund mechanism. However, studies have overlooked the influences of such refund mechanisms on tourists' tour participation decisions and tourism revenue. We conducted choice experiments to examine the impact of such mechanisms using a case of Amami rabbit tourism in Japan. We found that the guarantee significantly influences the tourists’ decision-making and tour revenue. In particular, we found that the expected tourist participation rate and tour guide revenue vary drastically depending on the probability of the rabbit encounter. The maximum expected revenue from the tour with a 90% chance was about 20 times larger than that with a 10% chance. This indicates that conserving wildlife to maintain the sighting probability raises tour benefits, creating a win-win situation by balancing conservation and tourism development.     

Can domestication of wildlife lead to conservation? The economics of tiger farming in China

Tigers are a threatened species that might soon disappear in the wild. Not only are tigers threatened by deteriorating and declining habitat, but poachers continue to kill tigers for traditional medicine, decoration pieces and so on. Although international trade in tiger products has been banned since 1987 and domestic trade within China since 1993, tigers continue to be poached and Chinese entrepreneurs have established tiger farms in anticipation of their demise. While China desires to permit sale of tiger products from captive-bred tigers, this is opposed on the grounds that it likely encourages illegal killing. Instead, wildlife conservationists lobby for more spending on anti-poaching and trade-ban enforcement. In this study, a mathematical bioeconomic model is used to investigate the issue. Simulation results indicate that, unless range states are characterized by institutions (rule of law and low corruption) similar to those found in the richest countries, reliance on enforcement alone is insufficient to guarantee survival of wild tigers. Likewise, even though conservation payments could protect wild tigers, the inability to enforce contracts militates against this. Our model indicates that wild tigers can be protected by permitting sale of products from tiger farms, although this likely requires the granting of an exclusive license to sellers. Finally, it is possible to tradeoff enforcement effort and sale of products from captive-bred animals, but such tradeoffs are worsened by deteriorating tiger habitat.     

Incorporating distributional considerations in the safe minimum standard approach: endangered species and local impacts

Explicitly incorporating current distributional concerns into the safe minimum standard (SMS) approach is the objective of this study. The SMS approach is a collective choice process that prescribes protecting a minimum level of a renewable natural resource unless the social costs of doing so are somehow excessive or intolerably high. More complete implementation of an SMS approach, if it is to be a pragmatic policy tool, requires that distributional considerations be included in determining whether the economic consequences of preservation actions are intolerable. Two case studies involving the US Endangered Species Act are used to illustrate how distributional concerns might be incorporated into the SMS approach.     

A Roll Call Analysis of the Endangered Species Act Amendments

Public choice economics view legislative process as a transaction in the political market. Interest groups demand regulation in their favor and lobby lawmakers. The lawmakers analyze an assortment of factors and supply legislation to the winning group, thereby maximizing their rent from the political market. This article examines Endangered Species Act (ESA) amendments from a public choice perspective. Congressional voting on the ESA amendments are assessed using a model based on political incentive and ideology. The results show that the lawmakers' voting behavior is correlated with their party affiliation, ideology, and several characteristics of their home state, such as number of endangered species, proportion of urban population, contribution of the natural resources and construction sectors in gross state product, and geographical location.     

西双版纳热带能源植物资源的研究

能源植物是关系国家能源安全,应对目前和今后可能出现的能源危机的重要战略资源;西双版纳热带能源植物估计总数在1000种以上;通过对158种含油量≥30%的能源植物进行分析,得出该地区具有能源植物种类繁多,资源丰富,热带区系特征明显,古老成分和特有种多等特点;一些能源植物如小桐子、油棕等,兼具速生丰产、含油量高、燃烧性能好等优点并极具开发潜力;这些植物主要以种子油为能源利用部位,发展能源植物可以同时获得木材、香料、水果、药材、橡胶等多种资源;必须指出,能源植物的保护问题不容忽视,部分能源植物同时也是稀有濒危物种,有许多能源植物生产顽拗性种子。     

Species preservation versus development: An experimental investigation under uncertainty

The safe minimum standard (SMS) is a decision rule to preserve renewable resources, unless the social costs of doing so are intolerable. While unpersuasive to many, support for the SMS has been advocated by some economists for settings involving irreversibility and a high degree of uncertainty. The objective of this paper is to explore decision-making involving species preservation versus development within an experimental laboratory setting, and involving uncertainty. The experimental design implements a number of prior game-theoretic investigations of the SMS (Bishop, 1978; Ready and Bishop, 1991; Palmini, 1999), involving insurance, and lottery or combined games against nature. The choices are between species preservation, which possibly provides a cure for a disease, or developing habitat, leading to irreversible depletion. Econometric results from a random parameters logit model, using responses from 117 participants (across both U.S. and Mexican university student samples) and 9 treatment choices, indicate that support for the SMS varies across the type of game, the imposed maximum regret condition concerning the relative magnitude of the costs of disease and net benefits of development, a constructed measure of respondents' risk aversion, and other factors. There is also strong evidence of unobservable heterogeneous preferences for preservation within our sample.     

Where’s the beef? Cattle producers’ response to endangered species listings

Agricultural production in the United States relies on extensive land use that sometimes conflicts with federal policies to protect wildlife habitat. A prime example of this conflict is the Endangered Species Act (ESA), which can impose significant penalties on landowners and producers who destroy the habitat of listed species. While prior research has measured the effects of ESA regulations on land values and natural resources, no research has identified the consequences of listing a species on livestock production. In this study, we measure the effect of ESA listings on beef cattle production in the central United States. Results suggest that listing likely has a small positive effect on cattle stocks.     

Joint estimation of discount rates and willingness to pay for public goods

We analyze willingness to pay (WTP) for environmental programs whose time periods of benefit and repayment differ, using a net present value framework that identifies parameters of both WTP and personal discount rates. Respondents to a contingent valuation survey focusing on protection of critical habitat buffer zones for the endangered Steller Sea Lion in Alaska were asked their willingness to pay for 1-, 5-, and 15-year repayment periods. We jointly estimate the personal discount rates and WTP via maximum likelihood, and compare with a model assuming a fixed, market discount rate.     

世界濒危旅游景点及其保护对策

繁忙的工作告一段落后,很多人都希望出门旅行.然而,当他们兴致勃勃地抵达一些旅游景点时却失望地发现,那里早已不再是摄影师镜头下的人间仙境.文章从近期公布的世界十大濒危旅游景点出发,指出随着全球变暖、游客数量过度、环境污染和过度采伐等情况越来越严重,已有越来越多的旅游胜地遭受波及,并成了濒危景点,有不少还是世界自然或文化遗产,其损失无法用金钱来衡量.文章最后着重阐述了治理和保护对策,并认为一个地方成为世界自然或文化遗产更多地意味着承担责任和兑现承诺,远不仅是事受旅游收益,可以随意开发那么简单.