Marc Conte

Projecting Global Land-Use Change and Its Effect on Ecosystem Service Provision and Biodiversity with Simple Models

Background As the global human population grows and its consumption patterns change, additional land will be needed for living space and agricultural production. A critical question facing global society is how to meet growing human demands for living space, food, fuel, and other materials while sustaining ecosystem services and biodiversity [1]. Methodology/Principal Findings We spatially allocate two scenarios of 2000 to 2015 global areal change in urban land and cropland at the grid cell-level and measure the impact of this change on the provision of ecosystem services and biodiversity. The models and techniques used to spatially allocate land-use/land-cover (LULC) change and evaluate its impact on ecosystems are relatively simple and transparent [2]. The difference in the magnitude and pattern of cropland expansion across the two scenarios engenders different tradeoffs among crop production, provision of species habitat, and other important ecosystem services such as biomass carbon storage. For example, in one scenario, 5.2 grams of carbon stored in biomass is released for every additional calorie of crop produced across the globe; under the other scenario this tradeoff rate is 13.7. By comparing scenarios and their impacts we can begin to identify the global pattern of cropland and irrigation development that is significant enough to meet future food needs but has less of an impact on ecosystem service and habitat provision. Conclusions/Significance Urban area and croplands will expand in the future to meet human needs for living space, livelihoods, and food. In order to jointly provide desired levels of urban land, food production, and ecosystem service and species habitat provision the global society will have to become much more strategic in its allocation of intensively managed land uses. Here we illustrate a method for quickly and transparently evaluating the performance of potential global futures.

Indigenous Lands, Protected Areas, and Slowing Climate Change

Recent climate talks in Copenhagen reaffirmed the crucial role of reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD). Creating and strengthening indigenous lands and other protected areas represents an effective, practical, and immediate REDD strategy that addresses both biodiversity and climate crises at once.

Quality Information and Procurement Auction Outcomes: Evidence from a Payment for Ecosystem Services Laboratory Experiment

Procuring agencies in conservation auctions typically have more information about the ecosystem service (ES) quality of conservation actions than landowners and can affect auction outcomes by controlling participants’ access to this information. Our induced‐value laboratory auction experiment explores the impact of sellers’ access to ES‐quality information on auction efficiency when the conservation action choice is endogenous to offer formation. We find that providing ES‐quality information allows sellers to identify and submit higher‐quality conservation actions, an effect that counteracts previously identified efficiency losses from information rents.

Valuing Ecosystem Services

This chapter introduces social welfare, a key concept in the discipline of economics for evaluating the net benefits of government policy, in order to quantify the value that nature provides to society through ecosystem services. After briefly introducing the categories of ecosystem services and the philosophy of measuring social value, this chapter reviews several methods that can be used to estimate the value of different ecosystem services.

District Subdivision and the Location of Smallholder Forest Conversion in Sumatra

A unique GIS data set from Indonesia that distinguishes smallholder and plantation operations is used to test the impact of district subdivision, which enhances local control of natural-resource revenues, on the location of smallholder forest conversion. Nonparametric analyses show that in subdivided districts, smallholders convert forests on steeper land that is farther from the nearest road and deeper into the forest. Smallholders are also less responsive to forest protection in subdivided districts. District subdivision imposes external costs of

Information Access, Conservation Practice Choice, and Rent Seeking in Conservation Procurement Auctions: Evidence from a Laboratory Experiment

1,629 to

New metrics for managing and sustaining the ocean's bounty

4,941 per hectare due to increased carbon emissions associated with smallholder conversion deeper into the forest. (JEL C14, Q15)

Ecosystem services reinforce Sumatran tiger conservation in land use plans

&NA; Existing research emphasizes the sensitivity of conservation auction performance and bidder behavior to auction design choices, as these auctions are not incentive compatible, meaning rent seeking must be controlled. Procuring agencies must decide how to provide bidders with information about the environmental quality of different conservation practices to manage the trade‐off between an increased probability of selecting the optimal practice and increased rent‐seeking behavior associated with this information. We use an induced‐value laboratory experiment to explore how access to quality information and variation in the bid‐submission protocol can best be combined to improve auction performance. We find that the auction performs best when a bid‐menu format, in which participants submit bids for all their practices, is combined with information about the environmental quality rank of available conservation practices.