R. Kerry Turner

Economics of natural resources and the environment

This comprehensive and popular textbook is a core text for undergraduate students of environmental economics, and also appeals to geographers and environmentalists. The book deals fully with the orthodox theorems of the economics of pollution and optimal depletion rates for natural resources.

Valuing nature: lessons learned and future research directions

This paper critically reviews the literature on environmental valuation of ecosystem services across the range of global biomes. The main objective of this review is to assess the policy relevance of the information encompassed by the wide range of valuation studies that have been undertaken so far. Published and other studies now cover most ecosystems, with aquatic and marine contexts attracting the least attention. There is also a predominance of single function valuation studies. Studies valuing multiple functions and uses, and studies which seek to capture the ‘before and after’ states as environmental changes take place, are rare. By and large it is the latter types of analyses that are most important as aids to more rational decision taking in ecosystem conservation versus development situations involving different stakeholders (local, national and global). Aggregate (global scale) estimates of ecosystems value are problematic, given the fact that only ‘marginal’ values are consistent with conventional decision-aiding tools such as economic cost–benefit analysis. In general, valuation data provide prima facie support for the hypothesis that net ecosystem service value diminishes with biodiversity and ecosystem loss [Balmford et al. (2002), Science 297, p. 950]. Future research effort should include complementary research on multiple ecosystem services that seeks to capture the temporal disturbance profile and its causal factors. The explicit recognition of multiple, interdependent ecosystem services and values, poses both conceptual and empirical research challenges. It would serve to transform the practice of research in this sub-field via the a priori assumption of multiple (and inter-dependent) use, instead of independent single use. This line of reasoning can then be extended to the institutional arrangements that determine which values are captured. New institutional processes and arrangements are probably required in order to best realise benefit streams from multiple ecosystem use and non-use provision, across a range of different stakeholders.

Elicitation and truncation effects in contingent valuation studies

Abstract The contingent valuation method (CVM) uses surveys of expressed preferences to evaluate willingness to pay for (generally) non-market, environmental goods. This approach gives the method theoretical applicability to an extensive range of use and passive-use values associated with such goods. However, recent years have seen the method come under sustained empirical and theoretical attack by critics who claim that the expressed preference statements given by respondents to CVM questions are subject to a variety of biases to the extent that “true” valuations cannot be inferred. This debate was reviewed and assessed in the recent report of the US, NOAA “blue-ribbon” panel which gave cautious approval to the method subject to adherence to a rigorous testing protocol. This paper reports findings from the first UK CVM study to generally conform to those guidelines. The major objective of the research reported on here is the analysis of the effects of altering the method of eliciting willingness to pay (WTP) responses. Three WTP elicitation methods are employed: open-ended questions (where the respondent is free to give any answer); dichotomous choice questions (requiring a yes/no response regarding a set WTP bid level); and iterative bidding questions (where a respondent is free to move up or down from a given WTP starting point). Results indicate that respondents experience significant uncertainty in answering open-ended questions and may exhibit free-riding or strategic overbidding tendencies (although this is less certain). When answering dichotomous choice questions respondents seem to experience much less uncertainty although the suggestion that bid levels affect responses cannot be ruled out, and it is clear that respondents behave somewhat differently to dichotomous choice as opposed to open-ended formats. The iterative bidding approach appears to provide a halfway house with respondents exhibiting certain of the characteristics of both the other formats. We concluded that the level of uncertainty induced by open-ended formats is a major concern, and that further research into the microeconomic motivations of individuals responding to iterative bidding and dichotomous choice CV surveys is high priority. A further aim of the analysis was to test for changes in estimated mean WTP induced by the application of different forms of truncation across all elicitation methods. Recommendations are made on appropriate truncation strategies for each elicitation method.

Integrating natural and socio-economic science in coastal management

Abstract The future more sustainable management of coastal resources is an important policy goal for all governments of countries with coastlines. Coastal areas are under intense environmental change pressure with extensive feedback effects between the natural systems and the human systems. It could be argued that there is just one jointly determined and coevolving system that needs to be studied and managed. Understanding the interactions between the coastal zone and environmental change cannot be achieved by observational studies alone. Modelling of key environmental and socio-economic processes is a vital tool, required to buttress coastal management institutions and practice. Three overlapping procedural stages can be identified in the coastal resource assessment process. The scoping and auditing stage, implemented via a ‘pressure–state–impact–response’ framework, details, among other thing, problems, system boundaries and value conflicts. The framework is itself based on a conceptual model, which lays stress on functional value diversity and the links between ecosystem processes, functions and outputs of goods and services which are deemed ‘valuable’ by society. The two subsequent stages are integrated modelling, combining natural and social science methodologies, and evaluation of management options and related gains and losses. An overview of a research project, which utilised the pressure–state–impacts–response (P–S–I–R) framework and supporting concepts and methods, is presented in the last section of the paper, together with some generic ‘lessons’ for interdisciplinary research.

Managing nutrient fluxes and pollution in the Baltic: an interdisciplinary simulation study

Abstract This interdisciplinary paper reports the results of a study into the costs and benefits of eutrophication reduction in the Baltic Sea. A large multidisciplinary team of natural and social scientists estimated nutrient loadings and pathways within the entire Baltic drainage basin, together with the costs of a range of abatement options and strategies. The abatement cost results were compared with clean-up benefits on a basin-wide scale, in order to explore the potential for international agreements among the countries which border the Baltic. Most countries would seem to gain net economic benefits from the simulated 50% nitrogen and phosphorus reduction policy.

Public Attitudes to Contingent Valuation and Public Consultation

The use of cost-benefit analysis (CBA) in environmental decision-making and the contingent valuation (CV) technique as input into traditional CBA to elicit environmental values in monetary terms has stimulated an extensive debate. Critics have questioned the appropriateness of both the method and the technique. Some alternative suggestions for the elicitation of environmental values are based on a social process of deliberation. However, just like traditional economic theory, these alternative approaches may be questioned on their implicit value judgements regarding the legitimacy of the social-political organisation of the process of value elicitation. Instead of making assumptions a priori , research efforts should be focused on the processes by which actual public attitudes and preferences towards the environment can best be elicited and fed into environmental or other public policy decision-making. In the study presented in this paper, support was found for both the individual WTP based approach and a participatory social deliberation approach to inform the environmental decision-making process, suggesting that a combination of both approaches is most appropriate.

Implementing EU biodiversity policy: UK experiences

This paper offers a critical review of the European Union Habitats Directive, which requires Member States to designate and protect a network of habitats of European importance. In the UK, several problems linked to implementation have already appeared at the local level. These are illustrated through two case studies where an often restrictive and static interpretation of the legal requirements of the Directive has led to management conflicts. It is suggested that the use of participatory approaches and instruments adapted to no-net-loss policies such as mitigation banking, while not entirely unproblematic, could ease some of the practical problems of implementing the Directive.

A co-evolutionary approach to climate change impact assessment — Part II: A scenario-based case study in East Anglia (UK)

Abstract Policy makers are beginning to intensify their search for policies that assist society to adapt to the unfolding impacts of climate change at the local level. This paper forms the second part of two part a examination of the potential for using scenarios in adaptation and vulnerability assessment. Part I explained how climate change and socio-economic scenarios can be integrated to better understand the complex inter-relationships between a changing climate and a dynamically evolving social system. This second part describes how a broadly representative sample of public, private and voluntary organisations in the East Anglian region of the UK responded to the scenarios, and identifies future research priorities. The main findings are that integrated socio-economic and climate scenarios applied `bottom up’ to locally important stakeholders: (1) provide a sophisticated and dynamic mechanism to explore the potential feedbacks between natural and human systems; (2) offer a means to understand the vulnerability and adaptive capacity of different exposure units; (3) promote social learning by encouraging participants to assess the adequacy of their existing climate strategies for longer than their normal planning periods.

Measuring, modeling and mapping ecosystem services in the Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania

In light of the significance that ecosystem service research is likely to play in linking conservation activities and human welfare, systematic approaches to measuring, modeling and mapping ecosystem services (and their value to society) are sorely needed. In this paper we outline one such approach, which we developed in order to understand the links between the functioning of the ecosystems of Tanzania’s Eastern Arc Mountains and their impact on human welfare at local, regional and global scales. The essence of our approach is the creation of a series of maps created using field-based or remotely sourced data, data-driven models, and socio-economic scenarios coupled with rule-based assumptions. Here we describe the construction of this spatial information and how it can help to shed light on the complex relationships between ecological and social systems. There are obvious difficulties in operationalizing this approach, but by highlighting those which we have encountered in our own case-study work, we have also been able to suggest some routes to overcoming these impediments.

Secondary materials and international trade

Abstract The paper develops the international trade dimensions of recycling. It begins by outlining the sources of demand and supply that determine the volume, composition and direction of trade in waste materials. The model is intended to describe factors affecting international flows of any type of secondary material, although its usefulness in an empirical context is restricted in many cases by data limitations and complex lag structures on the supply side. Parts of the model are then applied to the case of waste paper, focusing on observed differences in national recycling rates and the role of trade in reconciling those differences.