Sunday, October 27, 2013

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Micro-level valuation - What is that tree worth?

Ohio State University has a unique application of valuation. It's common for universities to label various plants and trees to facilitate identification and knowledge.  For example, UNCW has small placards at the base of many trees on campus with the common name and scientific name of the species. Ohio State takes it up a notch and adds a conservation message.  I'll let these pictures do the talking:

Eastern White Pine
English Oak
European Ash

How do they do the valuation?

Can anyone think of other applications where this type of valuation might be useful?

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

As we get deeper into our discussion of non-market valuation, I'm going to continue my efforts to convince you that economic analysis has a indispensable place at the conservation policy table. This argument is fairly easy to make when I'm talking to economists or economics students, but for those that have never really studied econ before, it's a bit tougher. This is because people who have only studied natural sciences may have a tendency to view all things dealing with markets as the causes of environmental problems rather than the solutions. I hope you're starting to see that it's both.  Solutions have to target causes.

Please read:

Why Economics Matters for Endangered Species Protection (Shogren et al., 1998)

The Role of Economic Valuation in the Conservation of Tropical Nature (Naidoo, 2008)

Conservation Pays (Yuskavitch, 2007, Defenders of Wildlife)

Marine Conservation: How Economic Valuation of Ecosystem Services Can Help (Environment Matters, 2008)

Can Environmental Economic Valuation Techniques Aid Ecological Economics and Wildlife Conservation? (Loomis, 2000, Wildlife Society Bulletin)

Of additional interest:

Economic Incentives and Wildlife Conservation (Bulte et al., 2003)

Tons of references and links here:

Economic Valuation References WRI

Reefs here and here and here

Wetlands here

This is a tiny fraction of what's out there. Thoughts?