The Economics of Nature Managing Biological Assets

About this book

The Economics of Nature Management takes a unique "portfolio management" perspective on the worldwide deterioration of the natural environment. For many emerging countries, nature conservation boils down to the purely economic decision of "investing" limited funds in nature potentially at the expense of investing in other necessary imperatives such as education or infrastructure. As a result, the authors see the function of the book as twofold. First, to measure environmental services and biological assets and second it demonstrates how it applies the economic theory of nature management through case studies.

Contents

List of Tables. List of Figures. Preface. Part I: Managing the Earth's Biological Assets. Part II: Consumer Welfare Measurement: Consumer Demand Theory. Measuring Changes in the Well Being of Consumers. Public Goods and Welfare Change. General Equilibrium Considerations. Appendix: Consumer Surplus and Path Dependency. Part III: Producer Welfare and Aggregation of Well Being: Measuring Producer Surplus via the Input Market. Aggregation of Economic Welfare. Compensation Tests and Social Welfare Functions. Part IV: Resource Rents and Rent Capture: What is Rent? Agricultural Land and Rent Capture. Taxation, Charges and Rent Capture in Forestry. Property Rights and Rent Dissipation in Fisheries. Part V: Valuing Nonmarket Benefits: Expenditure Function Approach. Recreation Demand and the Travel Cost Method. The Contingent Valuation Method. Other Direct Valuation Methods. Discussion. Part VI: Evaluating Natural Resource Policy: Policy Evaluation and the Role of Government. A Brief Background to Cost-Benefit Analysis. Choice of Social Discount Rate. Mechanics of Cost-Benefit Analysis. Applications of Cost-Benefit Analysis. Conclusions. Part VII: Economic Dynamics and Renewable Resource Management: Background. Optimal Population Size and Economic Dynamics. Extinction. Property Rights and Dynamics. Uncertainty in Resource Exploitation. Beyond Bioeconomic Models? Species Interaction. Appendix I: Deterministic Optimal Control Methods. Appendix II: Stochastic Dynamic Optimisation. Part VIII: Sustainable Development and Conservation: Background. Sustainability Paradigms: Maintaining Capital Stocks. Sustainable Development: Related Concepts. Sustainability Indicators and Evidence. The Environmental Kuznets Curve. Conclusions. Part IX: Biological Diversity and Habitat: Biological Diversity: Background. Economics, Values and Endangered Species Legislation. Economic Values and Biodiversity. Nature Conservation and Protected Areas. Conclusions. Part X: Threatened and Endangered Species: Protecting Biological Diversity by Treaties. The African Elephant. Game Ranching to Conserve Wildlife in Kenya. Should Whales be Harvested? Conclusions. Part XI: Forest Management: Forest Competitiveness and Certification. Optimal Forest Rotation Age. The Allowable Cut Effect and Even Flow Constraints. Climate Change and Forestry. Conclusions.Part XII: Tropical Deforestation: Tropical Deforestation: Global Patterns and Rates. Economic Value of Tropical Forests. Causes of Tropical Deforestation. Is Tropical Deforestation Excessive? Conclusions. Part XIII: Conclusions. References. Index.

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Biography

G. Cornelis van Kooten is Professor in Agricultural Sciences and Forestry as well as Associate Director of the Forest Economics and Policy Analysis (FEPA) Research Unit at the University of British Columbia. He is on the editorial boards of several international journals, and has published more than 100 articles and books on natural resource and environmental economics as they relate to agriculture and forestry. Erwin H. Bulte is Assistant Professor in Tilburg Universitya s Department of Economics and in Wageningen Universitya s Department of Economics and Management. He has published widely in the areas of endangered species conservation, renewable resource management, and forestry. He serves as Secretary General of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (EAERE).