what to preserve an application of diversity theory to crane conservation this paper attempts to demonstrate how diversity theory can be applied to the analysis of real world conservation policies the specific example chosen to serve as a paradigm concerns preservation priorities among the fifteen species of cranes living wild throughout the world the example is sufficiently actual to show how diversity theory can be used operationally to frame certain critical conservation questions and to guide us toward answers by providing informative quantitative indicators of what to protect at the same time the cranes example is rich enough that it illustrates nicely some broad general principles about the economics of diversity preservation

how can market mechanisms for forest environmental services help the poor preliminary lessons from latin america summary market mechanisms for forest environmental services are a new approach for conservation but there is also an increasing interest in the derived developmental benefits of these mechanisms we first propose a conceptual framework for future research on the livelihood impacts of environmental service markets we then review eight latin american case studies on carbon sequestration and watershed protection market initiatives finding positive local income effects in most cases more land tenure security and socioinstitutional strengthening in some cases but some negative effects also we recommend pro poor policy measures such as reducing smallholders transaction costs and removing inappropriate access restrictions

open economy implications of two models of business fluctuations a wage contract model and misperceptions model of aggregate fluctuations are shown to have strikingly different implications when applied to a small open economy with a flexible exchange rate positive monetary disturbances reduce the relative price of non traded goods and create a trade surplus in the wage contract model but raise the relative price of non traded goods and create a trade deficit in the misperceptions model they also have different implications for production in each industry consumption nominal prices and the exchange rate open economy applications of macro economic models are shown to be a useful source of additional testable implications

the impacts of collective action and property rights on plant genetic resources summary the loss of agricultural biodiversity can reduce food security increase economic uncertainty and threaten the viability and sustainability of agricultural systems often overlooked in the discussion about genetic erosion is the role that collective action and property rights play in controlling the propagation and use of landrace varieties this paper presents examples from around the world of collective management practices over plant genetic resources and discusses some of the impacts that private property rights legislation could have on the conservation of plant genetic resources reflecting upon recent advances in related research areas the paper concludes with suggestions of directions for future research in this emergent topic

designing payments for environmental services in theory and practice an overview of the issues abstract payments for environmental services pes have attracted increasing interest as a mechanism to translate external non market values of the environment into real financial incentives for local actors to provide environmental services es in this introductory paper we set the stage for the rest of this special issue of ecological economics by reviewing the main issues arising in pes design and implementation and discussing these in the light of environmental economics we start with a discussion of pes definition and scope we proceed to review some of the principal dimensions and design characteristics of pes programs and then analyze how pes compares to alternative policy instruments finally we examine in detail two important aspects of pes programs their effectiveness and their distributional implications pes is not a silver bullet that can be used to address any environmental problem but a tool tailored to address a specific set of problems those in which ecosystems are mismanaged because many of their benefits are externalities from the perspective of ecosystem managers pes is based on the beneficiary pays rather than the polluter pays principle and as such is attractive in settings where es providers are poor marginalized landholders or powerful groups of actors an important distinction within pes is between user financed pes in which the buyers are the users of the es and government financed pes in which the buyers are others typically the government acting on behalf of es users in practice pes programs differ in the type and scale of es demand the payment source the type of activity paid for the performance measure used as well as the payment mode and amount the effectiveness and efficiency of pes depends crucially on program design

assessing the performance of conservation auctions an experimental study this work uses controlled laboratory experiments to investigate the budgetary and the economic performance of competitive tenders for allocating conservation contracts to landholders experiments have been replicated in two different countries to check for robustness of results we find that auctions outperform the more traditional fixed price programs only in the one shot setting with repetition the auctions quickly lose their edge the budget constrained auction performs similarly to the target constrained in the one shot setting but appears more robust to repetition our results suggest that previous estimates of conservation auction performance are too optimistic and we propose a method for improving such estimates

payments for ecosystem services as commodity fetishism abstract payments for ecosystem services pes economically reward resource managers for the provision of ecosystem services and are thus characterised by i an ecological function subject to trade ii the establishment of a standard unit of exchange iii and supply demand and intermediation flows between those who sell and buy ecosystem services this paper departs from the term commodity fetishism broadly understood as the masking of the social relationships underlying the process of production to illuminate three invisibilities in the commodification of ecosystem services firstly we argue that narrowing down the complexity of ecosystems to a single service has serious technical difficulties and ethical implications on the way we relate to and perceive nature secondly the commodification of ecosystem services denies the multiplicity of values which can be attributed to these services since it requires that a single exchange value is adopted for trading finally we suggest that the process of production exchange and consumption of ecosystem services is characterised by power asymmetries which may contribute to reproducing rather than addressing existing inequalities in the access to natural resources and services

property rights issues involving plant genetic resources implications of ownership for economic efficiency the economic theory of property rights is applied to the issue of the conservation of plant genetic diversity an issue often discussed in terms of benefit sharing in order to demonstrate that the assignment of property rights is important for reasons of efficiency as well as for equity given the existence of transaction costs within an industry the location of a property rights assignment is a crucial factor determining the incentives for efficient levels of investment at various levels of that industry in the context of plant genetic resources this means that property rights that are located at the retail end of the pharmaceutical and plant breeding industries may not have sufficient effect to generate the incentives to supply adequate amounts of plant genetic resources to the research and development sectors at the base of these industries

payments for agrobiodiversity conservation services for sustained on farm utilization of plant and animal genetic resources abstract this paper discusses the potential application of payment for ecosystem services like schemes to tackle market failures associated with the public good characteristics of agrobiodiversity conservation services so called payments for agrobiodiversity conservation services pacs would increase the private benefits from utilizing local plant and animal genetic resources on farm through voluntary reward mechanisms so as to sustain their on farm conservation theoretical and applied insights about pacs are discussed and attention drawn to some of the challenges to be overcome in implementing pacs in particular these relate to the identification of potential buyers the complex institutional setting in which pacs might operate and the articulation of a meaningful conservation goal based on a safe minimum standard approach the latter is urgently needed so as to ensure that additional agrobiodiversity services are generated relative to a fixed pricing approach pacs schemes that seek to overcome information asymmetries through the use of conservation auctions may be associated with significant efficiency gains however potential trade offs between ecological effectiveness economic efficiency and social equity considerations need to be carefully evaluated

the economic valuation of farm animal genetic resources a survey of available methods abstract genetic erosion of domestic animal diversity has placed 30 of the world s breeds at risk of extinction often as a result of government policy programmes conservation and sustainable development of animal genetic resources angr require a broad focus that includes the many adaptive breeds that survive well in the low external input agriculture typical of developing countries environmental economic valuation methodologies have an important role to play in supporting decisions regarding which breeds should be conserved and how this should be done however angr in general and valuation methods in particular have received very little attention this paper provides a survey of the methods available for the valuation of angr and the steps that must be taken in order to test some of the more promising methodologies in practice

can payments for environmental services help reduce poverty an exploration of the issues and the evidence to date from latin america summary this paper examines the main ways in which payments for environmental services pes might affect poverty pes may reduce poverty mainly by making payments to poor natural resource managers in upper watersheds the extent of the impact depends on how many pes participants are in fact poor on the poors ability to participate and on the amounts paid although pes programs are not designed for poverty reduction there can be important synergies when program design is well thought out and local conditions are favorable possible adverse effects can occur where property rights are insecure or if pes programs encourage less labor intensive practices 2004 elsevier ltd all rights reserved

on crop biodiversity risk exposure and food security in the highlands of ethiopia this paper investigates the effects of crop genetic diversity on farm productivity and production risk in the highlands of ethiopia using a moment based approach the analysis uses a stochastic production function capturing mean variance and skewness effects welfare implications of diversity are evaluated using a certainty equivalent measured as expected income minus a risk premium reflecting the cost of risk we find that the effect of diversity on skewness dominates its effect on variance meaning that diversity reduces the cost of risk the analysis also shows that the beneficial effects of diversity

new empirical evidence on the bid ask spread in this article we model the determinants of spread for 734 firms listed on the nyse over the period 1 january 1998 to 31 december 2008 we propose a panel data model of the determinants of spread there are four main messages emerging from our work we find a statistically significant effect of volume on spread inconsistent with the work of johnson 2008 on price we find mixed results consistent with the literature on the effect of price volatility on spread our results are completely the opposite of the cross sectional literature but sides with the relatively recent work of chordia et al 2001 we allow for persistence of spread as a determinant of spread and find significant evidence of spread persistence across all 16 sectors finally we examine size effects and find statistically strong evidence of size effects based on the relationship between price and spread persistence and spread and volatility and spread

estimating compensation payments for on farm conservation of agricultural biodiversity in developing countries article i nfo this paper examines the role of direct compensation payments for agrobiodiversity conservation using minor millet landraces in india as an example the cost of farmer participation in a hypothetical payments for agrobiodiversity conservation services pacs scheme is estimated using a stated preference valuation approach significant inter crop and inter varietal differences are observed with respect to consumption values upon which the compensation demanded by farm households is shown to primarily depend drawing on a categorisation of consumption values and farmer preferences the paper points to the importance of si multaneously considering a range of potential interventions in order to conserve a priority portfolio of agrobiodiverse resources in predominantly subsistence based agricultural systems

conceptualizing interventions to support on farm genetic resource conservation abstract interest is increasing worldwide in on farm conservation as a component of a strategy to conserve crop genetic resources this may require outside support to small scale farmers in areas of crop diversity this paper argues that crop diversity maintained by farming households results from the interplay between a demand and a supply for this diversity interventions to support on farm conservation can be conceptualized by the way they influence these two factors demand interventions should increase the value of crop diversity for farmers or decrease the farm level opportunity costs of maintaining it while supply interventions should decrease the costs of accessing diversity

the cost effectiveness of conservation payments international donors invest billions of dollars to conserve ecosystems in low income nations the most common investments aim to encourage commercial activities such as ecotourism that indirectly generate ecosystem protection as a joint product we demonstrate that paying for ecosystem protection directly can be far more cost effective although direct payment initiatives have imposing institutional requirements we argue that all conservation initiatives face similar challenges thus conservation practitioners would be well advised to implement the first best direct payment approach rather than a secondbest policy option an empirical example illustrates the spectacular cost savings that can be realized by direct payment initiatives

taking stock a comparative analysis of payments for environmental services programs in developed and developing countries abstract payments for environmental services pes are an innovative approach to conservation that has been applied increasingly often in both developed and developing countries to date however few efforts have been made to systematically compare pes experiences drawing on the wealth of case studies in this special issue we synthesize the information presented according to case characteristics with respect to design costs environmental effectiveness and other outcomes pes programs often differ substantially one from the other some of the differences reflect adaptation of the basic concept to very different ecological socioeconomic or institutional conditions others reflect poor design due either to mistakes or to the need to accommodate political pressures we find significant differences between user financed pes programs in which funding comes from the users of the es being provided and government financed programs in which funding comes from a third party the user financed programs in our sample were better targeted more closely tailored to local conditions and needs had better monitoring and a greater willingness to enforce conditionality and had far fewer confounding side objectives than government financed programs we finish by outlining some perspectives on how both user and government financed pes programs could be made more effective and cost efficient

relative and absolute scarcity of nature assessing the roles of economics and ecology for biodiversity conservation abstract our aim in this essay is to identify and analyze some of the difficulties with interdisciplinary integration of economic and ecological contributions to the study of biodiversity loss we develop our analysis from a widely accepted definition of economics which is based on the concept of scarcity taking a closer look at this notion we find that economics actually limits itself to a very particular aspect of scarcity which we denote as relative scarcity we describe in what respect the economic approach towards biodiversity is based on this notion and also reflect on the specific understanding of the relation of humans and nature behind the economic approach we then turn to absolute scarcity as another notion of scarcity and show that this is not within the scope of economics but has been a theme of ecology and ecological economics we describe in which way ecological and ecological economic approaches towards biodiversity are based on the idea of absolute scarcity and also reflect on the specific understanding of the human nature relationship behind this notion of scarcity against this background we discuss the roles of economics and ecology for nature conservation we conclude that the interdisciplinary integration of ecology and economics requires a philosophical underpinning and suggest a framework for further research

reconciling theory and practice an alternative conceptual framework for understanding payments for environmental services article i nfo this article provides an alternative and novel theoretical approach to the conceptualization and analysis of payments for environmental services pes we devote special emphasis to institutional and political economy issues which have been somewhat neglected in the literature on pes we argue that the coasean and pure market approach dominating the conceptualization of pes in the literature cannot be easily generalized and implemented in practice by contrast taking into account complexities related to uncertainty distributional issues social embeddedness and power relations permits acknowledging the variety of contexts and institutional settings in which pes operate the alternative approach presented in this introductory article to the special section may be more appealing to pes practitioners since while avoiding restrictive and prescriptive standpoints it allows some key sources of complexities they usually deal with on the ground to be more easily understood

group inequalities and the nature and power of collective action case studies from peru summary the paper explores collective action in peru through community level case studies it asks why extreme inequality between groups has persisted for so long and whether a weak propensity to collective action is part of the answer significant evidence of constructive meso level collective action is found but it is restricted by a corrupt self seeking political system the analysis shows how in relatively fragile institutional systems the poor find collective action more difficult and costly while the relatively well endowed with capabilities can manage it better shedding light on why inequality is often long lasting when only modest gains are achieved frustration is to be expected

a study on financial opportunity costs of growing local varieties of sorghum in ethiopia implications for on farm conservation policy abstract the increasing interest in on farm conservation is driven by its diverse attractive features its participatory nature and its flexible and dynamic features its capacity to maintain not only crop diversity but the knowledge that evolves with it and the chance it offers to link conservation with utilization and farmers livelihoods to implement this strategy on a sustainable basis policy incentives are crucial this paper argues that opportunity costs farmers face have a role to play to design sound policy incentives taking sorghum as an example opportunity costs have been examined in this paper using data collected from 198 farmers in eastern ethiopia the average opportunity costs suggest the size of the required policy incentives and they are the basis to estimate the national conservation costs for on farm conservation the regression analysis shows that opportunity costs increase with access to output markets and extension output price access to input supply experience in growing improved varieties and the relative importance of the crop on the contrary plot quality input price and oxen ownership are reducing the opportunity costs the paper then concludes outlining the policy implications of the empirical findings to incentive design for on farm conservation

exploring the links between equity and efficiency in payments for environmental services a conceptual approach this paper addresses the relationship between equity and efficiency in pes schemes from a conceptual point of view emphasis is placed on the role of the institutional setting social perceptions about economic fairness or distributive justice of the payments uncertainty and interactions between agents including power relations we introduce the heuristic concept of the efficiency equity interdependency curve to illustrate potential combinations between equity and efficiency that may be theoretically possible the paper argues that different types of institutional factors determine which equity efficiency combinations may be potentially feasible influence the actual combination that will be achieved on the ground and condition possible changes in that combination due to exogenous factors by stressing the role of institutional aspects in shaping the equity efficiency relationship the paper attempts to go beyond the dominant coasean vision of pes