The Ecological Economics of Biodiversity Methods and Policy Applications

About this book

Addesses the inbalance of ecosystems by presenting an integrated ecological-economic perspective on the analysis of biodiversity loss and conservation.

Contents

Part 1 Context: Overview - setting the scene, a historical perspective on the economy - environment relationship, structure of the book; biodiversity, ecosystem functions and human activity - multicultural diversity, loss of biodiversity, alternative perspectives on biodiversity value. Part 2 Bio-ecological foundations: conceptualizing biodiversity and ecosystem functions - introduction, the "4-box model", biodiversity functions, community, ecosystem and ecological organization, ecosystem health; measuring biodiversity - introduction, biotic richness - genetic, species and ecosystem diversity, ecological methods for biodiversity analysis. Part 3 Economic foundations: economic analysis of biodiversity values - the concept of economic value, general aspects of economic valuation of biodiversity, motivation for economic valuation of biodiversity; a classification of economic values of biodiversity; measuring economic value of biodiversity benefits - alternative valuation methods and their degree of applicability, biodiversity valuation studies; discussion of the valuation results. Part 4 Economics - ecology interface: integrated ecological-economic modeling and analysis of biodiversity - introduction; frameworks and theories underlying integrated modeling, integrated model assessment, specific methods and models, interaction between integrated modeling and monetary valuation, advantages and disadvantages of integrated modeling, a spatial-economic-hydro-ecological model for biodiversity evaluation; multi-criteria evaluation - introduction, meta-analytical methods, value transfer, a comparative study of biodiversity values. Part 5 Policy and conclusions: biodiversity policy - introduction, public policy strategies, biodiversity certification and eco-labeling as public biodiversity policies; conclusions.

Customer Reviews