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Using Sciences to Improve the Economic Efficiency of Conservation Policies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 September 2016

JunJie Wu
JunJie Wu*
Affiliation:
Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR
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Abstract

In the last 20 years, both public and private expenditures on resource conservation and environmental protection have increased dramatically. However, there are numerous technical and political barriers to the efficient use of conservation funds. This paper discusses some of these barriers and approaches to overcoming them. It argues that ecosystem complexities such as threshold effects, ecosystem linkages, and spatial connections often mitigate against politically palatable criteria for resource allocation. Ignoring these complexities is likely to result in substantial efficiency losses. While challenges are daunting for the efficient management of conservation investments, payoff is potentially high for the use of sciences.

Keywords

conservation policiesdistributional effectsecosystem linkagesspatial connectionstargeted policiesthreshold effects
Type
Invited Papers
Information
Agricultural and Resource Economics Review , Volume 33 , Issue 1 , April 2004 , pp. 18 - 23
Copyright
Copyright © 2004 Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association 

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References

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