TY - CHAP
T1 - Valuing ecological and anthropocentric concepts of biodiversity
T2 - A choice experiments application
AU - Christie, Michael
AU - Hanley, Nick
AU - Warren, John
AU - Hyde, Tony
AU - Murphy, Kevin
AU - Wright, Robert
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© Cambridge University Press 2007 and Cambridge University Press, 2009.
PY - 2007/1/1
Y1 - 2007/1/1
N2 - Introduction - the challenge of valuing biodiversity Society needs to make difficult decisions regarding its use of biological resources, for example in terms of habitat conservation, or changing how we manage farmland through agri-environmental policy (Hanley and Shogren 2002). Environmental valuation techniques can provide useful evidence to support such policies by quantifying the economic value associated with the protection of biological resources. Pearce (2001, p. 29) argues that the measurement of the economic value of biodiversity is a fundamental step towards its conservation since ‘the pressures to reduce biodiversity are so large that the chances that we will introduce incentives [for the protection of biodiversity] without demonstrating the economic value of biodiversity are much less than if we do engage in valuation’. Assigning monetary values to biodiversity is thus important since it allows the benefits associated with biodiversity to be directly compared with the economic value of alternative resource use options (Nunes and van den Bergh 2001). OECD (2001) also recognises the importance of measuring the economic value of biodiversity and identifies a wide range of uses for such values, including demonstrating the value of biodiversity, in targeting biodiversity protection within scarce budgets, and in determining damages for loss of biodiversity in liability regimes. More generally, the role of environmental valuation methodologies in policy formulation is increasingly being recognised by policy-makers.
AB - Introduction - the challenge of valuing biodiversity Society needs to make difficult decisions regarding its use of biological resources, for example in terms of habitat conservation, or changing how we manage farmland through agri-environmental policy (Hanley and Shogren 2002). Environmental valuation techniques can provide useful evidence to support such policies by quantifying the economic value associated with the protection of biological resources. Pearce (2001, p. 29) argues that the measurement of the economic value of biodiversity is a fundamental step towards its conservation since ‘the pressures to reduce biodiversity are so large that the chances that we will introduce incentives [for the protection of biodiversity] without demonstrating the economic value of biodiversity are much less than if we do engage in valuation’. Assigning monetary values to biodiversity is thus important since it allows the benefits associated with biodiversity to be directly compared with the economic value of alternative resource use options (Nunes and van den Bergh 2001). OECD (2001) also recognises the importance of measuring the economic value of biodiversity and identifies a wide range of uses for such values, including demonstrating the value of biodiversity, in targeting biodiversity protection within scarce budgets, and in determining damages for loss of biodiversity in liability regimes. More generally, the role of environmental valuation methodologies in policy formulation is increasingly being recognised by policy-makers.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=78651472146&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1017/CBO9780511551079.015
DO - 10.1017/CBO9780511551079.015
M3 - Chapter
AN - SCOPUS:78651472146
SN - 9780521866835
SP - 343
EP - 368
BT - Biodiversity Economics
PB - Cambridge University Press
ER -