Optimal Allocation of Land for Conservation: A General Equilibrium Analysis

This paper was replaced with a revised version on 7/26/10Conservation, General Equilibrium Modeling, Optimal Land Allocation, Conservation Tax, Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use, Q57, C68,

REDD+ Policy Preferences in Ethiopia: Developing Controls for Attribute Non-Attendance in Choice Experiment Data

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) is a payment for ecosystem services system created under the UN to reduce deforestation and degradation in developing countries. The REDD+ program creates markets for carbon sequestration services where REDD+ buyers are in UN-FCCC Annex 1 countries (developed countries) and sellers are in non-Annex 1 (typically developing countries). About 25% of the world’s forests are community managed (three times as much as private forests) but there is limited knowledge and information on preferences of households in communities with community managed forests toward programs like REDD+. Further, we do not have a good understanding of the true costs borne by these households when participating in programs like REDD+. We use a choice experiment survey of rural Ethiopian communities to understand respondents’ preferences toward the institutional structure of REDD+ contracts. Choice experiment surveys, a non-market valuation technique, allow the researcher to elicit preferences, including the tradeoffs between characteristics of the good or policy being studied and the marginal willingness to pay for individual characteristics of the program/good being valued. Preliminary results show that respondents care about how REDD+ programs are structured with regard to the manner in which the payments are divided between the households and the communities, the restrictions on using grazing land, and the level of payments received for the program. We find that the required firewood gathering reduction does not impact some households’ choice of REDD+ contracts. We are currently testing new methods in attribute non-attendance to better explain this finding

Optimum Land Allocation for Species Protection and Military Training on DoD Installations

Replaced with revised version of poster 8/11/10.Environmental Economics and Policy, Health Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use,

Special Issue on Climate Change and Land Conservation and Restoration: Advances in Economics Methods and Policies for Adaptation and Mitigation

Climate change will likely impact the ecosystem services and biodiversity generated from conserved land. Land conservation can also play a significant role in achieving cost-effective mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions. In this special issue we feature seven papers from the 2017 NAREA Workshop, “Climate Change and Land Conservation and Restoration: Advances in Economics Methods and Policies for Adaptation and Mitigation.” The articles include papers furthering the methodological frontier; portfolio optimization, dynamic rangeland stocking, and global timber harvest models, and those highlighting innovative applications; climate smart agricultural practices in Nigeria and Vietnam, welfare impacts on birding, and carbon and albedo pricing

Using STELLA Simulation Models to Teach Natural Resource Economics

In this article, the author discusses how graphical simulation models created using STELLA software can be used to present natural resource systems in an intuitive way in undergraduate natural resource economics classes based on his experiences at a leading research university, a state university, and a leading liberal arts college in the United States. The models allow students to develop an intuitive understanding of the economic aspects of natural resource systems. The author provides a short introduction to STELLA and then presents an economic model of the fishery in detail as an example of how models can be used in a classroom. He then discusses how he incorporates STELLA into his natural resource economics course, and closes the article by comparing STELLA with alternate methods

Access versus Choice: Testing the “Food Desert” Construct in Champaign, IL

How does one’s food environment affect food purchase decisions? Food access has received significant political and academic attention, particularly under the Obama administration. Existing literature on food access and “food deserts” mainly focuses on geographic distance or the retail of fresh fruits & vegetables versus fast food within a neighborhood to determine and identify inequitable access. In this paper I attempt to develop an endogenous measure of food access by asking how geographic placement of food retail affects food expenditure, particularly of fruits & vegetables. I use novel data on 886 households matched to food prices from a census of geocoded food retailers in Champaign County to approach this question from two perspectives. I first estimate the household’s share of grocery expenditures allocated to fresh, frozen, and canned fruits & vegetables versus other grocery items. I then use data on a person’s residence and geocoded data on food retail locations in Champaign County to test for relationships between retailer proximity, and the share of expenditure on fruits & vegetables. The next perspective uses a choice experiment to measure the tradeoff among store characteristics that determine where a consumer shops. The demand estimation reveals how much fruits & vegetables a person is actually consuming, while the choice experiment reveals whether that individual is constrained in their consumption by their existing characteristic set of stores. I find that while proximity to a grocery store is positively correlated with healthier food consumption, policy response should focus on improving store quality and product quality to induce behavioral change. I further find policy response should be cognizant of endogenous locational sorting which may require alternative means to improve health other than changing the food geography

Optimizing Conservation Planning for Multiple Cohabiting Species

Conservation planning often involves multiple species occupying large areas including habitat sites with varying characteristics. For a given amount of financial resources, designing a spatially coherent nature reserve system that provides the best possible protection to targeted species is an important ecological and economic problem. In this paper, we address this problem using optimization methods. Incorporating spatial criteria in an optimization framework considering spatial habitat needs of multiple species poses serious challenges because of modeling and computational complexities. We present a novel linear integer programming model to address this issue considering spatial contiguity and compactness of the reserved area. The model uses the concept of path in graph theory to ensure contiguity and minimizes the sum of distances between selected sites and a central site in individual reserves to promote compactness. We test the computational efficiency of the model using randomly generated data sets. The results show that the model can be solved quite efficiently in most cases. We also present an empirical application of the model to simultaneous protection of two cohabiting species, Gopher Tortoise and Gopher Frogs, in a military installation in Georgia, USA

Optimal Allocation of Land for Conservation: A General Equilibrium Analysis

This paper presents a general equilibrium analysis of the optimal allocation of land to be preserved as natural habitat for conservation and recreation. Following Anas (1988) we model the natural habitat as both a congestible public good due to recreation visits and a pure public good due to option and existence values. Following Fullerton and Kinnaman (1995) we analyze the use of tax instruments to achieve the first best outcome in a private competitive market. First we present the scenario where the public good, the environment, is provided by a government or conservation agency. We show that a per unit lump sum tax on the environment similar to Anas (1988) combined with a recreation tax or a wage subsidy can achieve the first best allocation. Given the difficulty of charging a lump sum tax we next show that combining the wage or recreation tax with a utility maximizing conservation agency achieves the first best outcome. Next we present the scenario where the public good, the environment, is privately provided. We show that a subsidy on the private land set aside for the environment combined with a recreation or wage tax can achieve the first best outcome. Given the growing interest in ecosystem service markets and in providing ecosystem services this analysis highlights that tax instruments can be used to provide the optimal amount of land devoted to the environment

Shifted Baselines Reduce Willingness to Pay for Conservation

A loss of memory of past environmental degradation has resulted in shifted baselines, which may result in conservation and restoration goals that are less ambitious than if stakeholders had a full knowledge of ecosystem potential. However, the link between perception of baseline states and support for conservation planning has not been tested empirically. Here, we investigate how perceptions of change in coral reef ecosystems affect stakeholders\u27 willingness to pay (WTP) for the establishment of protected areas. Coral reefs are experiencing rapid, global change that is observable by the public, and therefore provide an ideal ecosystem to test links between beliefs about baseline states and willingness to support conservation. Our survey respondents perceived change to coral reef communities across six variables: coral abundance, fish abundance, fish diversity, fish size, sedimentation, and water pollution. Respondants who accurately perceived declines in reef health had significantly higher WTP for protected areas (US $256.80 vs.$102.50 per year), suggesting that shifted baselines may reduce engagement with conservation efforts. If WTP translates to engagement, this suggests that goals for restoration and recovery are likely to be more ambitious if the public is aware of long term change. Therefore, communicating the scope and depth of environmental problems is essential in engaging the public in conservation