A Bioeconomic Analysis of the Duration of Conservation Contracts

Conservation and restoration of native vegetation is often a gradual process which may require many years to transform an ecosystem from one vegetative state to a target ecosystem. This process is stochastic, with some changes potentially irreversible. In contrast, contracts with landholders to undertake conservation measures on their property are typically for less than ten years and often make no contingencies for re-contracting at the end of the contract period. The risk to land holders and conservation agencies of contracts not being renewed and the consequent potential loss of previous investment means including covenants in conservation contracts may be attractive to both parties. A model is developed to empirically examine the optimal dynamic conservation contract and the possible role of covenants in the costs and benefits of contracts.POMDP, biodiversity, contracts, monitoring, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Monitoring of compliance in Australian conservation contracts

Government and non-government conservation agencies have long-term goals and objectives to provide environmental services, such as conserving the biodiversity of Australian native vegetation. In addition to national parks and reserves, private lands are often included in conservation programs to achieve these objectives. Formal contracts are entered into between the private landholder and the conservation agency to provide environmental services, or more commonly to provide inputs that are likely to lead to environmental services. The paper examines the costs and benefits of monitoring these conservation contracts when biodiversity change is stochastic.conservation, compliance, monitoring, enforcement, environmental regulation, Environmental Economics and Policy,

THE CALIFORNIA ROCKFISH CONSERVATION AREA AND GROUNDFISH TRAWLERS AT MOSS LANDING HARBOR

This article uses a bioeconomic model and data for groundfish trawlers at Moss Landing Harbor in Central California to analyze effects of spatial closures that were implemented recently by West Coast fishery managers to reduce bycatch of overfished groundfish stocks. The model has a dynamic linear rational expectations structure, and estimates of its parameters exhibit spatial variation in microeconomic and ecological factors that affect decisions about where and when to fish. Test results show that variation in marginal costs of crowding externalities and biological rates of stock productivity are the most significant factors to consider in the spatial management of roundfish trawlers at Moss Landing.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Information Sharing and Cooperative Search in Fisheries

We present a dynamic game of search and learning about the productivity of com-peting fishing locations. Perfect Bayesian Nash equilibrium search patterns for non-cooperating fishermen and members of an information sharing cooperative are com-pared with first-best outcomes. Independent fishermen do not internalize the full valueof information, and do not replicate first-best search. A fishing cooperative faces afree-riding problem, as each coop member prefers that other members undertake costlysearch for information. Pooling contracts among coop members may mitigate, butare not likely to eliminate free riding. Our results explain the paucity of informationsharing in fisheries and suggest regulators use caution in advocating cooperatives as asolution to common pool ineffciencies in fisheries.�search; Information sharing; Dynamic Bayesian game; Fishing cooperative

The value of harmful algal bloom predictions to the nearshore commercial shellfish fishery in the Gulf of Maine

Author Posting. © Elsevier B.V., 2008. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier B.V. for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Harmful Algae 7 (2008): 772-781, doi:10.1016/j.hal.2008.03.002.In this study, we develop a framework for measuring the value of harmful algal bloom (HAB) predictions. The framework captures the effects of both private and public responses to HABs. Using data from the New England nearshore commercial shellfish fishery and impact estimates for a large-scale HAB event in 2005, we illustrate how the potential value of HAB forecasts may be estimated. The results of our study suggest that the long-term value of a HAB prediction and tracking system for the Gulf of Maine is sensitive to the frequency of HAB events, the accuracy of predictions, the choice of HAB impact measures, and the effectiveness of public and private responses.This paper is a result of research funded in part by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Coastal Ocean Program under award #NA04NOS4780270 to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

RENT SEEKING AND THE REGULATION OF A NATURAL RESOURCE

This article analyses rent-seeking behaviour among agents who compete for high future shares of a common natural resource. Rent-seeking behaviour occurs when the agents, based on earlier experience, expect that the distribution of the common natural resource in the future will be dependent on the agents' activities in the past. We show that allocation rules that make rent seeking individually rational, normally lead to scale inefficiency, input mix inefficiency, and fewer participants in the industry than lump-sum allocation rules.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Innovations and Progress in Seafood Demand and Market Analysis

The purpose of this paper is to review several economic studies which present a spectrum of interesting and creative approaches to analyzing the market for fish and seafood. These studies form a basis from which to offer recommendations for further improving analysis of fish demand and markets. We do so in an effort to advocate the potential of this area of research in the decisions which promote efficient use of the world's fisheries resources. Each of the reviewed approaches has its merits and limitations, depending on the issue at hand, quality of the data and skills of the researcher. The approaches are categorized as either demand studies following more traditional commodity market analysis methods or as market research studies.seafood, demand, marketing, international trade, Demand and Price Analysis, Environmental Economics and Policy, International Relations/Trade, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Do Local Elites Capture Natural Disaster Reconstruction Funds?

This paper examines the allocation of natural disaster reconstruction funds among cyclone victims in rural Fiji. During post-emergency periods, when good information about cyclone damage is available, do local elites, a powerful minority, capture housing construction materials? With effective targeting in both receipt and the amount received, local elites do not capture larger benefits. More severely affected victims are not early recipients, though, because the supply of reconstruction funds is limited during early periods. This invites early capture: Traditional kin elites receive benefits earlier than others in recipient villages.

Limiting discounted-cost control of partially observable stochastic systems

This paper presents two main results on partially observable (PO) stochastic systems. In the first one, we consider a general PO system Xt+1 = F(xt, ~, ~J, Yt = G(xo 'IlJ (t = 0, 1, ... ) (*) on Borel spaces, with possibly unbounded cost-per-stage functions, and give conditions for the existence of a-discount optimal control policies (0 < a < 1). In the second result we specialize (*) to additive-noise systems xt+1 = Fo (Xt' aJ + ~o Yt = Go (xJ + 'Ilt (t= 0, 1, ... ) in Euclidean spaces, with Fn (x,a) and Go(x) converging pointwise to functions F «l(x, a) and G«l(x), respectively, and give conditions for the limiting PO model Xt+1 = F «l(xt, aJ + ~t Yt = G«l(xJ + 'Ilt to have an a-discount optimal policy