Frank Wätzold

An ecological-economic modelling procedure to design compensation payments for the efficient spatio-temporal allocation of species protection measures

Abstract Using an interdisciplinary approach, we present an ecological-economic modelling procedure to design compensation payments for species protection. We develop our procedure on the example of White Stork protection in a spatio-temporally structured landscape generated by human land use. The proposed procedure is able to solve complex allocation problems such as the spatio-temporal allocation of a budget among more than two areas with spatially differing species-specific cost and benefit functions of any shapes. Furthermore, the procedure delivers the efficient compensation payments not only qualitatively but quantitatively, and is hence relevant to the implementation of species protection policies.

A Conceptual Analysis of the Application of Tradable Permits to Biodiversity Conservation

Tradable permits have been applied in many areas of environmental policy and may be a response to increasing calls for flexible conservation instruments that successfully conserve biodiversity while allowing for economic development. The idea behind applying tradable permits to conservation is that developers wishing to turn land to economic purposes, thereby destroying valuable habitat, may only do so if they submit a permit to the conservation agency showing that habitat of at least the equivalent ecological value is restored elsewhere. The developer himself does not need to carry out the restoration, but may buy a permit from a third party, thus allowing a market to emerge. Nevertheless, the application of tradable permits to biodiversity conservation is a complex issue because destroyed and restored habitats are likely to differ. There may be various trade-offs between the ecological requirements that destroyed and restored habitats be as similar as possible, and the need for a certain level of market activity to have a functioning trading system. The success of tradable permits as an instrument for reconciling the conflicts between economic development and conservation depends on the existence of certain economic, institutional, and ecological preconditions, for example, a functioning institutional framework, sufficient expert knowledge, and adequate monitoring and enforcement mechanisms.

The importance of economic costs in the development of guidelines for spatial conservation management

The paper analyses the efficient spatial allocation of subsidies for biodiversity-enhancing land use. For this purpose a spatial allocation model for two different regions is developed which allows guidelines to be derived on how to achieve the highest possible ecological benefit within a given budget provided to support biodiversity-enhancing forms of land use. In contrast to other conservation biological models, our model includes more realistic economic assumptions. The difference from economic models dealing with the efficient spatial allocation of environmental goods is that the benefit function of our model is based on ecological theory. Therefore, our results differ from those obtained in monodisciplinary studies. In particular, with increasing marginal costs a more even allocation of resources becomes optimal.

Cost-effectiveness of managing Natura 2000 sites: an exploratory study for Finland, Germany, the Netherlands and Poland

Natura 2000 sites are expected to assure the long-term survival of Europe’s most valuable and threatened species and habitats. It follows that successful management of the sites is of great importance. Next to goal attainment, cost-effectiveness is increasingly recognised as a key requirement for gaining social and political acceptance for costly conservation measures. We identify and qualitatively examine issues of cost-effectiveness related to the design and implementation of management measures in Natura 2000 sites in Finland, Germany, the Netherlands and Poland. Given the wide variety of management design and implementation options within the four countries, our study is purely of an exploratory nature. We derive recommendations for improving the cost-effectiveness of management in Natura 2000 sites and for future research. Examples of policy recommendations include guaranteeing the availability of funds for longer periods, and ensuring the appropriate allocation of funds between the different tasks of designing and implementing management plans. Further research should examine the cost-effectiveness of controversial suggestions such as, for example, more tailored payment schemes for conservation measures that result in higher ecological outputs but are costly to administer. Moreover, more research is needed to better understand how rules for administrations, as well as rules and governance structures for tasks within administrations, should be designed.

Efficiency and applicability of economic concepts dealing with environmental risk and ignorance

Abstract The paper examines the efficiency and applicability of various economic concepts dealing with environmental uncertainty. Their applicability is analysed by classifying environmental uncertainty according to different criteria. Using such a structure, it can be shown that while the economic concepts are able to deal satisfactorily with some types of environmental uncertainty they are unable to deal with others adequately. The analysis of efficiency distinguishes between environmental risk (in which the decision-maker is aware of the distribution function of the random variables) and ignorance (in which the decision-maker does not know the relevant distribution functions). The concept of a risk premium proposed by Siebert, the policy recommendation to promote integrated technologies, and the environmental assurance bonding system developed by Costanza and Perrings are examined in terms of efficiency and applicability. The analysis reveals the following: (i) the application possibilities of the three concepts differ significantly; (ii) a concept which concentrates on the reduction of risk may lead to an increase in ignorance; (iii) while an economic concept may be efficient in the context of risk, it can be inefficient when ignorance exists; (iv) a trade-off exists between the possibility to precisely state whether an economic concept is efficient and the scope of its applicability.

Integrating economic costs into the analysis of flexible conservation management strategies.

Flexible conservation management, where measures (e.g., mowing of meadows, removing invasive species) are selected in each decision period depending on the current state of the ecological system, is generally perceived as superior to fixed management, where the same measure is applied in each decision period independent of the current state of the system. In past comparisons of fixed and flexible conservation strategies the additional costs that arise only in flexible strategies have usually been ignored. In this paper, we present a framework to integrate costs of flexible management into the evaluation of flexible conservation strategies. Using the example of an endangered butterfly species we demonstrate that the costs of flexible management may reverse the rank order of flexible and fixed conservation strategies, such that fixed strategies may lead to better ecological results than flexible ones for the same financial budget.

Promoting multifunctionality of agriculture: an economic analysis of new approaches in Germany.

In the early and mid-1990s, a number of policies to support the multifunctionality of agriculture, e.g., agri-environmental schemes (AESs), started to be implemented in Europe. Based on experiences with their implementation, new approaches have since been developed to advance these policies, and other new opportunities have arisen to further strengthen the multifunctionality of agriculture. Here we present three innovative approaches for supporting agricultural multifunctionality in Germany: participatory and local approaches for developing AESs, voluntary co-operative agreements (CAs) between farmers and water suppliers, and the combination of the impact mitigation principle with environmentally friendly farming. We evaluate these new policies in terms of their ability to improve the cost-effective provision of environmental benefits. We do this by applying a framework that encompasses an analysis of the cost-effective allocation of resources for producing environmental benefits and of the implementation and decision-making costs. Our analysis suggests that for locally developed AESs and CAs, there is a trade-off between more cost-effective resource allocation and better monitoring, on the one hand, and higher decision-making costs, on the other. When combining the impact mitigation principle with farming, we expect to find savings in terms of production, decision-making and implementation costs.

Global benefits and local costs – The dilemma of tropical forest conservation: A review of the situation in Madagascar

Deforestation is one of the most important conservation problems in tropical developing countries, even though cost–benefit analyses consistently show that forest conservation is economically beneficial. In Madagascar, deforestation continues at alarming rates despite numerous initiatives of international donors to increase incentives for local households to support forest conservation. In this literature review, we contrast cost–benefit analyses for forest conservation with: (1) the actual burdens and (2) the actual gains of forest conservation for rural households, generated mainly in the context of conservation projects. We show that approaches to generating direct benefits deliver less value than expected for rural communities; the benefit transfer mechanisms are insufficient as the majority of benefits are captured by other stakeholders, and increased benefit transfer is limited by structural and institutional limitations in local communities, valuation chains and in terms of governance failure at higher levels.

Rights to trade for species conservation: exploring the issue of the radiated tortoise in Madagascar

In many developing countries, people rely on natural resources for subsistence and cash income. The trade ban on species listed as critically endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List may be counter-productive, as increasing the rarity and thus price of these species acts as a stimulus to illegal markets rather than a deterrent. Since illegal markets cannot have legal property rights, there is no basis for any form of sustainable harvesting based on property rights. The Malagsy radiated tortoise ( Astrochelys radiata ) is an example of a species that is threatened by domestic and international trade; legalizing international trade could, under certain circumstances, provide financial incentives that might effectively reduce the domestic trade and subsistence harvest of this animal. This paper argues this critically-endangered species may be more effectively conserved by assigning trading rights to local communities, rather than demanding a trade ban that cannot be enforced successfully.

Towards regional sustainability: the need for interdisciplinary and applied research

In the face of global and long-term environmental problems, international political organisations such as the World Commission on Environment and Development have put forward the concept of sustainable development (WCED 1987). The origin and political career of this concept as well as debate on how the principles of sustainable development might be defined and put into practice have been the subject of numerous publications1.