What Role Does Knowledge of Wildlife Play in Providing Support for Species\' Conservation?

Conservation of biodiversity is a complex issue. Apart from the creation of nature reserves, there is a plethora of other factors that are part of this complex web. One such factor is the public knowledge of species. Since public funding is imperative for the conservation of species and creation of reserves for them, it is important to determine the public’s awareness of species and their knowledge about them. In the absence of such awareness and knowledge, it is possible that the public will misallocate their support. In other words, resources may be provided for species that do not need support urgently. We show how availability of balanced information about species helps the public to make rational decisions and to allocate support (e.g. monetary) to species that need it most. Other implications of a ‘wildlife knowledgeable’ public are also discussed.Biodiversity, conservation, Australia’s tropical wildlife, public knowledge, balanced information.

The State of the Environment and the Availability of Natural Resources

This is a draft chapter for K. Hartley and C. Tisdell, Microeconomic Policy, Second Edition. It is designed to illustrate how microeconomics can be applied to the analysis of issues involving the environment and the availability of natural resources and policies to address these issues. It outlines the micro-basis of a number of macro-environmental relationships, considers environmental externalities and their regulation, analyses some environmental relationships involving public goods or public bads, introduces the concept of total economic value and discusses the consequences of open-access and common property resources and policies to control their use

Global Property Rights in Genetic Resources: An Economic Assessment

In recent years, growing economic globalisation has been accompanied by rising social support for market systems as a means of managing resource-use. In turn, the free market movement considers definite and secure property rights (especially private rights and, sometimes, communal rights) in resources to be the necessary basis for a desirable market system. Global policies for managing the Earth’s genetic resources have been influenced by this approach. As outlined in this article, there has been a global expansion of property rights in genetic resources, and further extensions have been advocated. In order to assess the possible social benefits and costs of granting property rights in genetic resources, they are classified. This classification is shown to be useful in discussing economic and legal reasons for granting or denying property rights in genetic resources. Furthermore, it is shown to be pertinent to the consideration of market failures that may accompany the granting of property rights in genetic resources and which limit the potential social economic benefits from establishing property rights in these resources. It is concluded that many advocates of managing genetic resources by means of secure property rights and market systems have been overly optimistic about the potential of this policy, its social benefits, its impact on the conservation of biodiversity, and its workability. There is a need for more informed debate on these matters before concluding that wholesale global extension of property rights in genetic material is desirable

Elephants and polity in ancient India as exemplified by Kautilya's Arthasastra (Science of Polity)

After providing some background on the domestication and use of elephants in ancient India, this article concentrates on the role of the elephant in Indian statescraft as outlined in Kautilya’s Arthasastra, reputed to have been written in the fourth century BC (over 2300 years ago). The body of this essay is presented as follows: first background on the nature of Kautilya’s Arthasastra is provided and then his advice is outlined and discussed about the care of elephants. This care involves the duty of the King, the duties of the superintendent of elephants and the law relating to the treatment of elephants. Subsequently, Kautilya’s views about the use of elephants in war are considered. The essay concludes with an overall assessment of the role of the elephant in the polity of ancient India as portrayed by Kautilya. It is argued that the high use value of elephants to ancient Indian rulers, especially in war, had a significant positive impact on the conservation of Asian wild elephants, and incidentally other wildlife in India as well. Today, the conservation of the Asian elephant depends mostly on its use for tourism and its non-use economic values which reflect human empathy with it and which are reinforced in India by social and cultural values

The Economic Importance of Wildlife Conservation on the Otago Peninsula – 20 Years on

This article updates a paper which I wrote in 1988 about the economic value of biodiversity conservation on the Otago Peninsula and the scope for expanding wildlife tourism there. After outlining different ways to measure the economic importance of wildlife, I use economic impact analysis to measure the current importance of wildlife tourism on the Otago Peninsula. However, it is also pointed out that the activities of bodies such as the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust and the Department of Conservation have positive regional economic impacts. The specific methods and assumptions used for this economic analysis are outlined. The gross annual turnover of enterprises directly involved in the viewing of wildlife on the Peninsula is of the order of $6.5 million per year and they employ the equivalent of 70 full-time persons. With multiplier or flow-on effects these economic magnitudes are higher. However, the economic impact of wildlife tourism based on the Peninsula is much greater. The presence of wildlife on the Peninsula attracts travellers to the Dunedin region who would otherwise not visit and entices some who would have visited anyway to stay longer. This increases local expenditure on accommodation, food and so on. As a result, it is estimated that an extra$100 million, or so in expenditure occurs in Dunedin’s regional economy and employment is increased by the equivalent of 800-1000 full-time positions. The economic impact of wildlife on Dunedin’s regional economy has increased by more than eleven-fold in the last 20 years. While growth in tourism on the Peninsula is still possible, it is likely to be at a slower rate than in the past. This is because capacity constraints are being encountered. Furthermore, the future security of the Peninsula’s flagship species is not assured. In addition, problems are emerging where there is free access to areas where wildlife may be seen. It is observed that the opportunity cost of conserving most wildlife on the Otago Peninsula is low, but some conflict may be occurring between wildlife conservation and human uses of marine areas. The paper, however, makes it quite clear that the loss of wildlife on the Otago Peninsula would result in a huge economic loss to the Dunedin region

Economic Change and Environmental Issues: Policy Reforms and Concerns in Australian Agriculture

Since the closing years of the 1980s, Australia has adopted structural adjustment policies designed to foster economic liberalism based on the market system. Today, there is little economic protection for Australian agriculture and Australia is a persistent advocate of free international agricultural trade. The natural Australian environment is not very favourable for agriculture because of low and erratic levels of rainfall and poor soils. Scarcity of water in Australia is growing and its use has become a major natural resource issue. Water availability and use of water by Australian agriculture is discussed, its environmental impacts are considered and the scope for using market systems to allocate water effectively are discussed. Other environmental topics considered are water pollution and the use of chemicals in Australian agriculture, land clearing for agriculture and the environmental impact of pastoralism, soil degradation and reliance on genetically modified crops. Landcare Australia, an institutional initiative commenced in 1989 with the aim of promoting land conservation, is also examined. This program involves co-management between government and community groups (mostly of farmers) and community co-operation as a way to promote land conservation. It is not a market-based system. The view is expressed that market mechanisms are inadequate on their own for dealing with many environmental issues raised by agricultural development. Policy-makers need to consider a range of mechanisms, none of which are likely to be perfect

Policy Choices about Agricultural Externalities and Sustainability: Diverse Approaches, Options and Issues

This paper reviews agricultural externalities as a source of market failure and as a reason for a lack of sustainability of agricultural incomes and production. It concentrates mainly on environmental externalities (which include biodiversity loss) but consideration is also given to externalities involving adverse selection. Types of agricultural externalities are classified and their nature is explored. Depending on their type and nature, different policy implications often follow. For example, no intervention may be required, or it may be reasonable for a farmer to have to pay to create an unfavourable externality or be paid to moderate or eliminate it. Adverse selection is also an externality phenomenon and some of its implications for agricultural policy are explored. Traditionally, environmental economics has focused on economic efficiency in formulating policies for environmental regulation but equity is also important in relation to public policy. The implications of various equity principles for designing policies to address the occurrence of agricultural externalities are outlined. Attention is subsequently centred on the economic practicality of agricultural environmental policies when account is taken of transaction costs and knowledge limitations, as well as the political and social acceptability of such policies. These factors can alter the choice of ideal policies. Biodiversity change (conservation and loss) involving agriculture is considered as a particular case. By showing the relevance for agricultural policy of diverse foci, this study accords with the polycentric approach of Konrad Hagedorn. His approach should make us wary of cut-and-dried specific but narrow policy solutions that characterise traditional environmental economics. The "exactitude" of these solutions appears in many cases to be obtained at the expense of relevance

Economic growth and transition in Vietnam and China and its consequences for their agricultural sectors: Policy and agricultural adjustment issues

Secondary data are used to discuss and compare the consequences for agriculture of economic growth and transition in Vietnam and China. It is found that China and Vietnam have experienced similar adjustments in their agricultural sectors and face at this time, similar agricultural policy problems. China began its economic reforms in 1979 and Vietnam followed in 1986. Since then both countries have experienced rapid economic growth, falling poverty rates and significant rises in per capita income. At the same time, substantial restructuring of their economies has occurred, a feature of which has been a decline in the relative contribution of agriculture to total employment and output. These changes are outlined. Significant changes have also occurred within the agricultural sectors of China and Vietnam and these are reviewed. In both countries, the livestock sector has grown in relative importance. Households are the main contributors to agricultural production but their individual holdings of land are small by Western standards and households keeping livestock mostly only hold a few head. Given the exit of farmers from agriculture, pressures are mounting for increasing the size of agricultural units. This exit can add to economic efficiency and growth. Policies to facilitate movements from farm to non-farm employment are discussed and analysed. Property rights and the marketability of agricultural land can facilitate such movements and contribute to economic efficiency. In recent times, China and Vietnam have extended property rights in agricultural land and have increased its marketability. These measures are outlined. With further economic development and transition, it is predicted that these rights and the marketability of agricultural land will be further extended. However, if previous practice is followed, those policy changes are likely to be gradual

Children and economic development: Family size, gender preferences and human capital formation - theory and Indian cases

In the light of Gary Becker's economic theory of the family, considers how economic cost and benefit factors can influence the size of families that parents decide to have. Some support for the importance of such factors is found from results of structured interviews with wives in Kondh-dominated villages in western Orissa. These results are at variance with the hypothesis of Malthus about population growth. Factors that may alter the optimal family size as development proceeds are discussed. It is found in our sampling that, on the whole, there is a preference for daughters rather than sons although this is not as strong in the Kondh-dominated villages as in poor villages in the Santal tribal belt of West Bengal. While in the Kondh-dominated villages some discrimination in access to education in favour of boys compared to girls is present, little such or no such discrimination occurs in relation to access to food and medical attention. In the villages surveyed in the West Bengal Santal tribal belt, discrimination in favour of boys is more pronounced than in the Kondh-dominated area in Orissa. While economic considerations help to explain gender discrimination between boys and girls, we find that social and cultural factors also play a major role. Parents in a similar economic situation seem to display substantially different patterns of gender discrimination between children depending on their social and cultural content. It seems that the extent to which economic theories of the family explain family preferences and behaviour depend significantly on the social and cultural context in which they are to be applied