Comparing visible and less visible costs of the Habitats Directive: The case of hamster conservation in Germany

The EU Habitats Directive provides in Annexes II and IV a list of species needing to be conserved. Member States have implemented a variety of conservation measures in response to this obligation. These measures include the rejection, modification or delay of land development plans, payments for landowners to perform conservation measures and management actions such as breeding programmes. The costs of the various conservation measures are not always apparent. There may be an underestimation of the resulting costs when land development plans are altered, because there is no visible flow of financial resources. Such a biased perception may result in selecting conservation measures with high but less visible costs, whereas conservation measures with low but more visible costs are neglected. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to avoiding a biased selection of conservation measures by presenting a framework which captures a broad variety of costs relevant to the conservation of species protected by the Habitats Directive. We also demonstrate the relevance of a biased selection of conservation measures by using the framework to empirically estimate the costs of protecting the common hamster (Cricetus cricetus) in the region of Mannheim, Germany. We find that the less visible costs of changes in development plans are significantly higher than the more visible costs of payments to landowners and management actions. This result suggests that measures with visible costs should be given more attention in the future. --Common hamster,Cost assessment,Cost-effectiveness,EU Habitats Directive,Land use,Spatial planning,Species conservation

Land management and ecosystem services. How collaborative research programmes can support better policies

Land management, the organisation of the use and development of land, is an important instrument for addressing problems of rising greenhouse gas emissions and loss of natural resources. Yet, natural-social systems in which land management policies are implemented are poorly understood, thus decreasing the effectiveness of these policies. Local studies provide valuable insights, though only for the local conditions prevalent during the investigated period. Synthesising local studies in order to generalise results is impaired by the variety of local conditions. Collaborative research programmes may prevent some of these problems. They support the share of insights across temporal, ecological and spatial-economic contexts. On the basis of existing literature, we identify the challenges which face synthesis and demonstrate how a German research programme attempts to address some of them

The global costs and benefits of expanding Marine Protected Areas

Marine ecosystems and the services they provide contribute greatly to human well-being but are becoming degraded in many areas around the world. The expansion of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) has been advanced as a potential solution to this problem but their economic feasibility has hardly been studied. We conduct an economic assessment of the costs and benefits of six scenarios for the global expansion of MPAs. The analysis is conducted at a high spatial resolution, allowing the estimated costs and benefits to reflect the ecological and economic characteristics and context of each MPA and marine ecosystem. The results show that the global benefits of expanding MPAs exceed their costs by a factor 1.4–2.7 depending on the location and extent of MPA expansion. Targeting protection towards pristine areas with high biodiversity yields higher net returns than focusing on areas with low biodiversity or areas that have experienced high human impact

Spatial patterns of biodiversity conservation in a multiregional general equilibrium model

Migration dynamics and local biodiversity are interrelated in a way that is likely to affect patterns of regional specialisation. We assess this relationship with a New Economic Geography model that has been extended with biodiversity. Biodiversity is heterogeneous, and responds to habitat availability. The results indicate that a symmetric pattern of regional specialisation is more likely, and that additional equilibria may emerge as the marginal utility of biodiversity increases. In the policy analysis we focus on the case where the overall social optimum is symmetric and show that it can be supported as a non-cooperative Nash equilibrium. However, multiple Nash equilibria may exist.Biodiversity conservation Extinction risk Monopolistic competition Population dynamics Regional specialisation Reserve sites Spatial economics

How best to present complex ecosystem information in stated preference studies?

This study examines the most effective way to present complex information in the context of ecosystem service-based assessments of landscape-level decision-making, using choice consistency as a way of measuring what is “most effective”. The experiment compares a verbal presentation of information with a variety of visualisations of the same information in a discrete choice experiment about a catchment management plan in New Zealand. The analysis uses a scale heterogeneity model to identify inter-subject differences in choice consistency, measured as the relative weight of the deterministic and random components of utility. The results indicate that choice consistency is reduced when information is presented visually rather than verbally. Radar graphs reduce choice consistency more than histograms or colour maps. The time required to complete the choice tasks also increased when information was not verbal, suggesting that cognitive processing of verbal and visual information occurs quite differently

The Influence of Labour Flows on Wage Drift: an Empirical Analysis for the Netherlands

The wage level in The Netherlands is, by a large part, determined in collective labour agreements. However, the result of the processes of job destruction, job creation and job-to-job mobility is that workers move from less productive to more productive jobs. Our empirical analysis shows that the resulting productivity gains are reflected in the wage drift. i.e. wage increases which are not part of the collective agreements. Yet, the size of the effects appears to be rather modest.Wage formation; Wage drift; Labour flows

Land Management and Ecosystem Services How Collaborative Research Programmes Can Support Better Policies

Land management, the organisation of the use and development of land, is an important instrument for addressing problems of rising greenhouse gas emissions and loss of natural resources. Yet, natural-social systems in which land management policies are implemented are poorly understood, thus decreasing the effectiveness of these policies. Local studies provide valuable insights, though only for the local conditions prevalent during the investigated period. Synthesising local studies in order to generalise results is impaired by the variety of local conditions. Collaborative research programmes may prevent some of these problems. They support the share of insights across temporal, ecological and spatial-economic contexts. On the basis of existing literature, we identify the challenges which face synthesis and demonstrate how a German research programme attempts to address some of them

Non-Market Values in a Cost-Benefit World: Evidence from a Choice Experiment.

In support of natural resource and ecosystem service policy, monetary value estimates are often presented to decision makers along with other types of information. There is some evidence that, presented with such 'mixed' information, people prioritise monetary over non-monetary information. We conduct a discrete choice experiment among New Zealand decision makers in which we manipulate the information presented to participants. We find that providing explicit monetary information strengthens the pursuit of economic benefits as well as the avoidance of environmental damage. Cultural impacts, of which we provided only qualitative descriptions, did not affect respondents' choices. Our study provides further evidence that concerns regarding the use of monetary information in decisions with complex, multi-value impacts are valid. Further research is needed to validate our results and find ways to reduce any bias in monetary and non-market information