Biodiversity Conservation Problems and Policies

This book reports the more policy-oriented results of the Biodiversity programme of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Beijer Institute. The programme brought economists and ecologists together to consider where the problem in biodiversity loss really lies, what costs it has for society, and how it might best be addressed. The results are strikingly different from those reported in other works on the subject. Biodiversity loss matters for all ecosystems -- not just the megadiversity tropical forests. And it matters because it compromises the resilience and so the productivity of those systems. Biodiversity conservation requires the development of policies that change the behaviour of resource use everywhere -- not just in parks and reserves. The book is required reading for researchers and policy makers alike. It canvasses options for the reform of park management, biodiversity conservation projects, property rights, tax, trade and price regimes that are within the reach of governments everywhere.

1 Framing the Problem.- 1 Biodiversity conservation and economic development: the policy problem.- 2 Biodiversity conservation and economic development: local and global dimensions.- 2 Understanding Biodiversity Change.- 3 Population extinction and the biodiversity crisis.- 4 Diversity conservation in relation to fisheries in the Baltic Sea.- 5 Rangeland ecology: managing change in biodiversity.- 6 Biodiversity, natural resource accounting and ecological monitoring.- 3 The Valuation of Biodiversity.- 7 Modelling the value of biodiversity using a production function approach: the case of the Anolis lizard in the Lesser and Greater Antilles.- 8 Ecology and microeconomics as ‘joint products’: the Bonaire Marine Park in the Caribbean.- 9 Tropical wetland values and environmental functions.- 10 Valuation and the management of biological diversity.- 4 The Impact of Economic Policy.- 11 Environmental impact of governmental policies and external shocks in Botswana: a computable general equilibrium approach.- 12 A dynamic computable general equilibrium model of deforestation in Costa Rica.- 13 Biodiversity loss through tropical deforestation: the role of timber production and trade.- 14 Sustainable use of tropical forests in Asia.- 5 Options and Priorities for Biodiversity Conservation.- 15 Traditional ecological knowledge, biodiversity, resilience and sustainability.- 16 Conservation of biodiversity and economic development: the concept of transferable development rights.- 17 Biodiversity conservation and local development aspirations: new priorities for the 1990s.- 18 Unresolved issues.- References.