Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-p566r Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T11:38:57.727Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 April 2017

R. David Simpson*
Affiliation:
Energy and Natural Resources Division, Resources for the Future, 1616 P Street NW, Washington, DC 20036, USA.
Roger A. Sedjo
Affiliation:
Energy and Natural Resources Division, Resources for the Future, 1616 P Street NW, Washington, DC 20036, USA.
*
Corresponding author

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.

Type
Policy Opinions
Copyright
Copyright © 1996, Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

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.

References

Artuso, A. (in press), ‘Economic analysis of biodiversity as a source of pharmaceu-ticals’, in Feinsilver, J., ed., Emerging Connections: Biotechnology and Sustainable Development in Health and Agriculture, Washington, DC: Pan American Health Organization.Google Scholar
Aylward, B.A., Echeverria, J., Fendt, L. and Barbier, E.B. (1993), ‘A case study of pharmaceutical prospecting’, Report to the Swedish International Development Authority.Google Scholar
Balick, M.J. and Mendelsohn, R., (1992), ‘Assessing the economic value of traditional medicines from tropical rain forests’, Conservation Biology 6: 128130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barbier, E.B. (1989), Economics, Natural Resources Scarcity, and Development: Conventional and Alternative Views, London: Earthscan Publications.Google Scholar
Barzel, Y. (1989), The Economic Analysis of Property Rights, Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Besely, T. (1995), ‘Nonmarket institutions for credit and risk sharing in low-income countries’, Journal of Economic Perspectives 9: 2747.Google Scholar
Brander, J.A. and Spencer, B.J. (1983), ‘International R&D rivalry and industrial strategy’, Review of Economic Studies 50: 707722.Google Scholar
Brander, J.A. and Spencer, B.J. (1985), ‘Export subsidies and international market share rivalry’, Journal of International Economics 18: 83100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brandon, K. (1993), ‘Basic steps toward encouraging local participation in nature tourism projects’, in Lindberg, K. and Hawkins, D.E., eds., Ecotourism: A Guide for Planners and Managers, North Bennington, VT: The Ecotourism Society, 134151.Google Scholar
Brown, M. and Wyckoff-Baird, B. (1994), Designing Integrated Conservation and Development Projects, Landover, MD: Corporate Press.Google Scholar
Conservation International, Conservation Enterprise Department, The Tagua Initiative (1994), ‘Background information’, pamphlet, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Cultural Survival (1994), ‘Defending the rights of indigenous peoples and ethnic groups on five continents’, pamphlet, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Deacon, R.T. and Murphy, P. (1994), The structure of an environmental transaction: the debt-for-nature swap, Resources for the Future Discussion Paper 94–40, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Defenders of Wildlife (1995), ‘Defenders of Wildlife's World Reward Program: using economic incentives to encourage recovery’, pamphlet, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Demsetz, H. (1967), ‘Toward a theory of property rights’, American Economic Review 57: 347373.Google Scholar
Eaton, J. and Grossman, G.M. (1986), ‘Optimal trade and industrial policy under oligopoly’, Quarterly Journal of Economics 101: 383406.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Environment and Natural Resources Information Center (ENRIC) (1994), Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Use: USAID Program Overview, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Gamez, R., Piva, A., Sittenfeld, A., Leon, E., Jiminez, J. and Mirabelli, G. (1993), ‘Costa Rica's conservation program and National Biodiversity Institute (INBio)’, in Reid, W.V., Laird, S.A., Meyer, C.A., Gamez, R., Sittenfeld, A., Janzen, D.H., Gollin, M.A. and Juma, C., eds., Biodiversity Prospecting: Using Genetic Resources for Sustainable Development, Washington, DC: World Resources Institute, 5368.Google Scholar
Hart, O. and Holmstrom, B. (1987), ‘The theory of contracts’, in Bewley, T., ed., Advances in Economic Theory: Fifth World Congress, New York: Cambridge University Press, 71155.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krugman, P.R. (1986), Strategic Trade Policy and the New International Economics, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Krugman, P.R. (1987), ‘Is free trade passé?’, Journal of Economic Perspectives 1: 131144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lai, D. (1985), The Poverty of ‘Development Economies’, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Lawrence, K. (1994), ‘Sustainable tourism development’, in Munasinghe, M. and McNeely, J., eds., Protected Areas Economics and Policy: Linking Conservation and Sustainable Development, Washington, DC: The World Bank, 263272.Google Scholar
Lindberg, K. and Huber, R.M. Jr, (1993), ‘Economic issues in ecotourism management’, in Lindberg, K. and Hawkins, D.E., eds., Ecotourism: A Guide for Planners and Managers, North Bennington, VT: The Ecotourism Society, 82115.Google Scholar
Little, I.M.D. (1982), Economic Development: Theory, Policy, and International Relations, New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Mendelsohn, R. and Balick, M.A. (1995), ‘The value of undiscovered pharmaceuticals in tropical forests’, Economic Botany 49: 223228.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peters, C.M., 1994, Sustainable Harvest of Non-timber Plant Resources in Tropical Moist Forest: An Ecological Primer, Landover, MD: Corporate Press.Google Scholar
Peters, C.M., Gentry, A.H. and Mendelsohn, R.O. (1989), ‘Valuation of an Amazonian rainforest’, Nature 339: 655656.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pfaff, A. (1995), ‘What drives deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon? An empirical analysis and two additional perspectives’, Ph.D. dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Plotkin, M.J. (1988), ‘The outlook for new agricultural and industrial products from the tropics’, in Wilson, E.O. and Peters, F., eds., Biodiversity, Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 106119.Google Scholar
Prebisch, R. (1950), The Economic Development of Latin America and its Principal Problems, New York: United Nations.Google Scholar
Reid, J. and Rice, R. (1995), ‘Natural forest management as a tool for tropical forest conservation: does it work?’, manuscript, Conservation International, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Reid, W.V., Laird, S.A., Meyer, C.A., Gamez, R., Sittenfeld, A., Janzen, D.H., Gollin, M.A. and Juma, C. (1993), ‘A new lease on life’, in idem, eds., Biodiversity Prospecting: Using Genetic Resources for Sustainable Development, Washington, DC: World Resources Institute.Google Scholar
Simpson, R.D., Sedjo, R.A., and Reid, J.W. (in press), ‘Valuing biodiversity for use in pharmaceutical research’, Journal of Political Economy 104.Google Scholar
Singer, H. (1950), ‘The distribution of gains between borrowing and investing countries’, American Economic Review 40: 473485.Google Scholar
Toman, M.A. (1994), ‘Economics and “sustainability”: balancing trade-offs and imperatives’, Land Economics 70: 399413.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wells, M.Brandon, K., and Hannah, L. (1992), People and Parks: Linking Protected Area Management with Local Communities, Washington, DC: The World Bank.Google Scholar
Williamson, O.E. (1985), The Economic Institutions of Capitalism, New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Wilson, E.O. (1992), The Diversity of Life, Cambridge, MA: Belknap.Google Scholar