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Paying for the conservation of endangered ecosystems: a comparison of direct and indirect approaches*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 April 2017

R. David Simpson  and
Roger A. Sedjo
R. David Simpson*
Affiliation:
Energy and Natural Resources Division, Resources for the Future, 1616 P Street NW, Washington, DC 20036, USA.
Roger A. Sedjo
Affiliation:
Energy and Natural Resources Division, Resources for the Future, 1616 P Street NW, Washington, DC 20036, USA.
*
† Corresponding author
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Abstract

A number of international conservation donors support efforts to encourage conservation indirectly by subsidizing commercial activities. Such plans beg two questions. First, if commercial ventures are expected to be profitable, why is external financing necessary for their initiation? Second, if commercial ventures are not expected to be profitable, could not greater incentives for conservation be generated by making direct payments? We examine these questions in detail. While we find that the practical impediments to instituting a direct payment programme may be substantial, the practical impediments to instituting any effective conservation programme may be substantial. On balance, there is a strong case to be made for greater experimentation with direct payment schemes than heretofore.

Type
Policy Opinions
Information
Environment and Development Economics , Volume 1 , Issue 2 , May 1996 , pp. 241 - 257
Copyright
Copyright © 1996, Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

*

The authors thank participants at the Conference on Environment and Development held in Stockholm, 9–11 September 1995; Edward Barbier; and two anonymous referees for very helpful comments on an earlier version of this work. We are also grateful to Kay Murphy for careful proofreading. Responsibility for errors and opinions rests solely with the authors, however.

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