The Economics of Biodiversity and Nature Tourism

Contact:  Prof. David Pearce

Researchers:  David Pearce, Timothy Swanson, Brett Day, Wolf Krug, Andreas Kontoleon, Camille Bann, Mike Norton-Griffiths, Dominic Moran (Scottish Agricultural College, Edinburgh)

Programme:  Biodiversity is one of the main foci of the CSERGE research programme. The inter-disciplinary team of researchers addresses biodiversity issues at all levels: genetic, species and ecosystems. Much of the research concentrates on causes of biodiversity loss, different aspects of biodiversity values and valuation, value appropriation mechanisms, and incentives for more sustainable models of management. The work on nature tourism includes studies on the recreational demand for biological resources such as species and protected areas. Case study work has been undertaken in South America, Africa, South East Asia and Europe. Various ecosystems, such as forests, wetlands and African rangelands have been studied, along with individual species such as rhinoceros, pandas and seals.

Publications:

Pearce, D.W and Pearce, C.G. (2001) The Value of Forest Ecosystems, Report to the Secretariat of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, Montreal, Canada.

Moran, D and Pearce, D.W. (2001) Handbook on the Applied Valuation of Biological Diversity, OECD, Paris, forthcoming.

Norton-Griffiths, M. (2000) Wildlife losses in Kenya: an analysis of conservation policy, Natural Resource Modelling 13 (1), pp. 13-34

Krug, W. (2000) Nature tourism and protected area pricing: lessons learned from Africa, in: The design and Management of Forest Protected Areas – Papers presented at the Beyond the Trees Conference 8-11 May 2000 in Bangkok/Thailand, WWF, Gland, pp. 159-173

Day, B.H. (2000) A recreational demand model of wildlife-viewing visits to the game reserves of the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa, CSERGE-Working Paper, GEC 2000-08, University College London

Pearce, D.W., Moran, D., Krug, W. (1999) The Global Value of Biological Diversity, Report to the United Nations Environment Programme, Nairobi, Kenya

Swanson, T. (1999) Conserving global biological diversity by encouraging alternative development paths: can development coexist with diversity?, Biodiversity and Conservation 8, pp. 29-44

Swanson, T., Qiwen, W., Kontoleon, A., and Xuejun, Q. (1999) The Economics of Panda Reserve Management: a case study of Wolong Reserve, Sichuan, China, A study prepared on behalf of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development

Swanson, T. and Goeschl, T. (1998) The management of genetic resources for agriculture: ecology and information, externalities and policies. Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment, CSERGE Working Paper, University College London

Swanson, T., Mourato, S., Swierzbinski, J. and Kontoleon, A. (1998) Conflicts in conservation: aggregating total economic values. Paper presented at the World Congress of Environmental and Resource Economists, 24-27 June, Venice, Italy

Norton-Griffiths, M. (1998) The Economics of Wildlife Conservation Policy in Kenya, in: Milner-Gulland, E.J. and Mace, R.: Conservation of Biological Resources, Blackwell, London, pp. 279-293

Bann, C. (1998) The economic value of mangroves: a manual for researches, Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia, Singapore

Moran, D. and Pearce, D.W. (1997) Investing in Biodiversity: An Economic Perspective on Priority Setting, Biodiversity and Conservation 6 (9), pp. 1219-1243

Pearce, D.W., Moran, D. and Wendelaar, A. (1996): Global biodiversity priorities: a cost-effectiveness index for investments, Global Environmental Change 6 (2), pp. 103-119

Swanson, T. (1997) Global Action for Biodiversity. Earthscan, London

Moran, D. (1994) Contingent valuation and biodiversity: measuring the user surplus of Kenyan protected areas. Biodiversity and Conservation 3, pp.663-684

Sponsors:  Various sponsors including UNEP, IUCN, WWF and OECD.

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Comparative Analysis of Socio-economic Evaluations of Conventional, Organic and Biotechnology Products

Contact: Dr. Mitsuyasu Yabe

Researchers: Mitsuyasu Yabe, Andreas Kontoleon, Timothy Swanson, David Pearce and Eric Rayn. 

Programme: the project will conduct international comparative surveys in England and EU countries to investigate the relationships between food quality, price, and consumers’ preferences for genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The project will identify factors that are significant in the decision making process of purchasing foods that may contain GM ingredients using stated preference techniques (choice experiments and contingent valuation).  Based on these results, the project will seek to predict the effect of agricultural biotechnology on the production, distribution, market price, and trade of agricultural food products. This information will prove useful to gain better understanding on the optimal and most cost-effective levels of IP handling and labelling of GM foods for both consumers and producers.

Sponsors: OECD Co-operative Research Programme: Biological resource Management for Sustainable Agriculture Systems and Policy Research Institute, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, JAPAN.

Publications: None to date

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