Environment and Development Economics

Table of Contents - 1996 - Volume 1, Issue 02  

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Policy Opinions

Paying for the conservation of endangered ecosystems: a comparison of direct and indirect approaches*

R. David Simpsona1 c1 and Roger A. Sedjoa1

a1 Energy and Natural Resources Division, Resources for the Future, 1616 P Street NW, Washington, DC 20036, USA.

ABSTRACT

A number of international conservation donors support efforts to encourage conservation indirectly by subsidizing commercial activities. Such plans beg two questions. First, if commercial ventures are expected to be profitable, why is external financing necessary for their initiation? Second, if commercial ventures are not expected to be profitable, could not greater incentives for conservation be generated by making direct payments? We examine these questions in detail. While we find that the practical impediments to instituting a direct payment programme may be substantial, the practical impediments to instituting any effective conservation programme may be substantial. On balance, there is a strong case to be made for greater experimentation with direct payment schemes than heretofore.

Correspondence:

c1 Corresponding author

Footnotes

* The authors thank participants at the Conference on Environment and Development held in Stockholm, 9–11 September 1995; Edward Barbier; and two anonymous referees for very helpful comments on an earlier version of this work. We are also grateful to Kay Murphy for careful proofreading. Responsibility for errors and opinions rests solely with the authors, however.