G.C. van Kooten

Marginal Valuation of Charismatic Species: Implications for Conservation

Most contingent valuation studies focus on total willingness to pay (WTP) as a measure of welfare change. For policy involving species preservation, however, it is important to distinguish between the benefits of preventing a species from going extinct and the benefits of preserving numbers above the minimum viable population (MVP) level. Once MVP is exceeded, marginal WTP becomes relevant. These propositions are illustrated for the case of one charismatic species whose management is much debated, minke whales in the Northeast Atlantic Ocean. It is shown that, for a given estimate of total preservation value, strict conservation and extinction can both be optimal. This finding highlights the importance of collecting marginal values in contingent valuation surveys.

Valuing Trade-Offs between Net Returns and Stewardship Practices: The Case of Soil Conservation in Saskatchewan

In this paper, a trade-off function between net returns and soil quality is developed for farmers in southwestern Saskatchewan using a Markov decision model. The results show that farmers who are concerned with soil levels or stewardship employ chem-fallow more often at lower soil moisture levels and also tend to crop more intensively to conserve soil. The major conclusion is that concern for soil quality, as documented by some researchers, does have practical significance in changing agronomic practices; but, when soil is relatively deep, it takes a fairly substantial concern about soil quality before it is possible to distinguish clearly the agricultural practices of farmers who are truly concerned with stewardship from those who are not.

Conceptual issues related to carbon sequestration: Uncertainty and time

Abstract Global climate change is about uncertainty related to ecological and economic processes, and political responses. It is about fairness and income distribution among nations, both now and in the future. It is a dynamic problem that involves national carbon transition functions, damage functions and discount rates. These issues form the basis of the current paper, which examines them from a conceptual point of view.

Institutional, social and economic roots of deforestation: a cross-country comparison

The emphasis on pure economic explanations for economic development has recently shifted to cultural, social and institutional factors. An ordinary least squares (OLS) regression equation is used to examine the relationship between deforestation and economic, institutional and social capital variables for 117 countries. Institutional, economic, and social capital variables are significantly related to deforestation, although there is no evidence to support the existence of an environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC). While the results cannot be used to discuss any one country specifically, they do provide insight into the general roles of social and institutional factors in deforestation.

Incorporating Risk Aversion into Dynamic Programming Models

Most previous stochastic dynamic programming (DP) applications have assumed that decision makers are risk neutral; however, risk permeates both intrayear and interyear relationships in most DP problems. Incorporating risk aversion to intrayear outcomes alone can violate the independence assumption of expected utility and can destabilize long-run equilibrium returns. Aversion to riskiness of the long-run returns suppresses the effect of sequential resolution of risk over time. Because tolerance of short-run versus long-run risk varies in dynamic situations, procedures for incorporating risk aversion should accommodate this variation. More research on risk averse DP formulations is needed.

Technological change and tropical deforestation : A perspective at the household level

We analyse the effects of technological change in agriculture on forest clearing by households in developing countries. The possible effects are found to be many and diverse, depending on the type of change and the institutional context. We conclude that agricultural intensification is certainly not the panacea that some believe it to be.

Economic costs of managing of an electricity grid with increasing wind power penetration

We examine the impact of policy choices, including a carbon tax, on the optimal allocation of power across different generation sources and on future investments in generating facilities. The main focus is on the Alberta power grid, as it is heavily dependent on fossil fuels and has only limited ties to other power grids, although the model could be extended to larger (and even multiple) grids. The results indicate that, as wind penetrates the extant generating mix characterizing the grid, cost savings and emission reductions do not decline linearly but at a decreasing rate. However, if flexibility is allowed, then, as the carbon tax increases to C

Why might forest companies certify? Results from a Canadian survey

40/tCO2 or above, existing coal plants start to be replaced by newly constructed wind farms and natural gas plants. If coal can be completely eliminated from the energy mix and replaced by natural gas and wind, substantial savings of 31.03 Mt CO2 (58% of total emissions) can result. However, this only occurs for carbon taxes of over C

An interactive multiobjective approach to harvest decisions in forest planning.

170/tCO2. The associated high capital costs of new generating facilities may thus not be an ideal use of funds for addressing climate change.

Relative riskiness of fixed vs. flexible crop rotations in the dryland cropping region of Western Canada

During the late 1980s/early 1990s, voluntary forest certification emerged as a new market-based incentive mechanism and had an important influence on the way the worlds forests are managed. To understand the mechanism of its diffusion, we employed a survey instrument and probit regression analysis to investigate certification of forest practices by Canadian companies. Specifically, we investigated the characteristics of firms that have considered certification and of firms that have formally manifested their intention to certify. Three major forest certification schemes are considered: (1) ISO 14001, (2) the Canadian Standards Association, and (3) the Forest Stewardship Council. We find that a firms type of tenure holdings, reliance on export markets, size, and the local community are important factors in explaining why forest companies consider certification.