Effectiveness and cost effectiveness of Yellow-Eyed Penguin conservation measures

Although an estimated US$6 billion is invested annually in our planet’s biological diversity, little research has been conducted on which conservation treatments work best or provide best value for money. Conserving biodiversity efficiently depends on identifying conservation treatments which provide greatest return on investment. Where controlled experiments are not possible, panel econometric techniques can be used to determine the effectiveness of conservation treatments. A long-running Yellow-Eyed Penguin (Megadyptes antipodes) nest count in New Zealand presents a golden opportunity to compare the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of three commonly used conservation treatments—trapping of introduced predators, revegetation, and intensive management. Following ecological theory, we specify a density-dependent population growth rate. We control for year effects and site characteristics such as land cover, slope, and elevation. We confront the possibility of selection bias in treatment with site fixed effects and with an instrumental variable based on site accessibility. Of the three treatments analyzed, only intensive management is significantly correlated with increases in site-level penguin population growth rate. We estimate the marginal cost of providing yellow-eyed penguins through intensive management to be NZ$68,600 per nest.Environmental Economics and Policy,

The Sustainability and Cost-Effectiveness of Water Storage Projects on Canterbury Rivers: The Opihi River Case

There is an increasing demand for water resources in the Canterbury region. The impact of this demand has lead to unacceptable minimum river flows, which has resulted in adverse affects to river ecology. In an effort to resolve this problem water storage projects have gained considerable attention. However, in order to consider all values of the impact of water storage projects, a systematic way of implementing an ecosystem services approach is developed. This ecosystem services approach coupled with various appropriate analytical methods are developed for the purposes of evaluating the cost-effectiveness of water storage projects and the sustainability of river systems impacted by water storage projects. For the purposes of evaluating the cost-effectiveness of water storage projects it is argued that cost utility analysis should be applied through an ecosystem services index, which is constructed from the aggregation of normalized indicators that represent each ecosystem service and preferential weights for each ecosystem service. The evaluation of sustainability is considered both according to its weak and strong definitions. Weak sustainability is evaluated by a non-declining ecosystem services index over time. Strong sustainability is evaluated by the elicitation of threshold levels or safe minimum standards where an ecosystem service, as represented by an indicator, should not pass below. These analytical methods developed are subsequently applied to the Opihi River, which is a river system located in Canterbury that has been hydrologically modified and impounded by the Opuha Dam scheme. The application of the analytical methods to the Opihi River provides a few preliminary results. Further data collection is required to fully determine the cost-effectiveness of the Opuha Dam and the sustainability of the Opihi River impacted by the dam scheme.Cost utility analysis, ecosystem services, ecosystem services index, indicators, sustainability, water storage projects, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Environmental Economics and Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Health Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use,

Potential economic impacts of providing for Aquaculture Management Areas in Canterbury

This research estimates the commercial costs and benefits associated with selected aquaculture projects in the Canterbury region. Mussel farming employment will most likely be generated in coastal communities that at present have few employment opportunities. These communities are likely to profit as well from increased infrastructure needs for the marine farming enterprise. Any development in the marine farming industry will take many years to reach full potential. This means that the costs and benefits from increased marine farming activities will be staggered over a number of years. It is acknowledged that the gains might be achieved at different locations than the losses occur. The effects on other stakeholders are often uncertain.Mussel farming, economic impact, scenarios, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management, Land Economics/Use,

Fishery Policies and their Impact on the New Zealand Maori

The introduction of innovative fishery policies in New Zealand has recently attracted international attention. The introduction of an ITQ system was premised on the notion of Crown ownership of fishery resources. Conflict has accompanied these policies as Maori people have challenged the government over ownership of fishery resources and declaimed the skewed impact of the fishery policies. This paper examines the source of these problems focussing particularly on the Treaty of Waitangi negotiated in 1840 between the Crown and heads of Maori tribes. The Treaty guaranteed to Maori the full, exclusive and undisturbed possession of their fisheries and other properties, guarantees which were until recently ignored. The Crown has subsequently ceded some authority over and ownership of fishery resources to Maori.New Zealand fisheries policies, Treaty of Waitangi, resource ownership, distributional impact, Maori unemployment rate, Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Resource endowments, incentives and footprints

The recent announcement that New Zealand’s ecological footprint is the sixth largest in the world’ is inaccurate as the words per capita are missing from the headline. Ecological Footprints claim to measure the amount of biologically productive land and water required to produce the goods and services we consume and to absorb the wastes it generates given prevailing technology and resource management. Do Ecological Footprints provide information that is useful for environmental professionals? The ideas in this article provide some insight when reflecting on why New Zealand and Australia are listed as ecological villains

Testing Different Types of Benefit Transfer in Valuation of Ecosystem Services: New Zealand Winegrowing Case Studies

Most ecosystem services (ES) are neither priced nor marketed. Resource managers may fail to take into account degradation of unpriced services in their resource management decisions. Being able to estimate values for ES is fundamental to designing policies to induce resource users to provide (or improve) ES at levels that are acceptable to society. Conducting ecosystem valuation via non-market methods is costly and time consuming. Benefit Transfer (BT) using choice modeling (CM) is a potentially cost-effective method for valuing ES by transferring information from existing valuation studies (and study sites) to a target area of interest (policy sites). The prime objective of this paper is to examine the validity of BT and hence whether it is feasible to conduct the transfer process and assist policy making. The paper focuses on the environmental impact of winegrowing practices in two New Zealand winegrowing regions. The two sites, Hawke’s Bay and Marlborough, have similar environmental issues and attributes but are geographically separated. The study estimates WTP and Compensating Surplus (CS) for ES applying CM and, subsequently, given the preferences of respondents across sites and populations, tests the transferability of unadjusted value transfer (WTP) and benefits function (CS) assessing four different types of BT.Benefit transfer, choice modeling, New Zealand winegrowing, ecosystem services,

Financing threatened species management: the costs of single species programmes and the budget constraint

In New Zealand total annual funding allows 15 percent of the 2,400 threatened species to be targeted for management. Although management costs are crucial to a conservation organisation's ability to achieve its goals, estimates of costs are not usually included in applications for funding or the preparation of recovery plans. Cost is also not generally a factor in priority ranking systems and cost-effectiveness analysis is rarely conducted. Using the results of analysis of 11 single species programmes for 2003-2012, this paper investigates the costs of management. It also considers the impact of the budget constraint on outcomes, cost-effectiveness, and investment.threatened species, management, cost, budget constraint, Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Forestry policy and poverty: the case of community forestry in Nepal

Common forests in developing countries are valuable sources of raw material supplies, employment and income generation, particularly for low income households. This paper looks at the effect on income and employment when common forest resources have external policies that constrain their use. Using a mixed-integer linear programming model, this study examines the impacts of conservation-oriented community forest policies in Nepal on three household income groups. The results show that current community forest policies, which focus on environmental outcomes through forest use restriction for environment conservation and timber production, result in a large reduction in employment and income of the poorest households and largely explain the recent increase in poverty of rural areas.Forestry policy, poverty, Nepal, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management, Land Economics/Use, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Factors influencing adoption of agroforestry among smallholder farmers in Zambia

Agroforestry technologies have been extensively researched and introduced to smallholder farmers in Zambia for over two decades. Despite the research and extension effort over this period, not many farmers have adopted these technologies. The purpose of this paper is to determine why agroforestry technologies are not being taken up by examining factors that influence the adoption of agroforestry practices. Based on data obtained from 388 farming households, statistical analysis show an association between adoption of both improved fallows and biomass transfer technologies with knowledge of the technology, availability of seed, and having the appropriate skills. In addition some household characteristics are found to be linked to the incidence of adoption. However, the strength of association between these variables is low, giving an indication that there might be other factors at play limiting agroforestry adoption. It is anticipated that these findings will point to other areas beyond the household and community level that need further exploration in order to understand factors limiting agroforestry adoption.Agroforestry adoption, smallholder farmers, limitations to adoption, chi-square tests of independence analysis, Zambia, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use,