Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword
- Introduction
- 1 Do we really care about biodiversity?
- Part I Causes of biodiversity loss
- Part II The value of biodiversity
- 9 Designing the legacy library of genetic resources: approaches, methods and results
- 10 Why the measurement of species diversity requires prior value judgements
- 11 Combining TCM and CVM of endangered species conservation programme: estimation of the marginal value of vultures (Gyps fulvus) in the presence of species–visitors interaction
- 12 Valuing ecological and anthropocentric concepts of biodiversity: a choice experiments application
- 13 Spatially explicit valuation with choice experiments – a case of multiple-use management of forest recreation sites
- Part III Policies for biodiversity conservation
- Part IV Managing agro-biodiversity: causes, values and policies
- Index
- References
10 - Why the measurement of species diversity requires prior value judgements
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 August 2009
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword
- Introduction
- 1 Do we really care about biodiversity?
- Part I Causes of biodiversity loss
- Part II The value of biodiversity
- 9 Designing the legacy library of genetic resources: approaches, methods and results
- 10 Why the measurement of species diversity requires prior value judgements
- 11 Combining TCM and CVM of endangered species conservation programme: estimation of the marginal value of vultures (Gyps fulvus) in the presence of species–visitors interaction
- 12 Valuing ecological and anthropocentric concepts of biodiversity: a choice experiments application
- 13 Spatially explicit valuation with choice experiments – a case of multiple-use management of forest recreation sites
- Part III Policies for biodiversity conservation
- Part IV Managing agro-biodiversity: causes, values and policies
- Index
- References
Summary
Introduction
In the discussion about biodiversity loss and conservation (cf. Wilson 1988; McNeely et al. 1990; Watson et al. 1995; Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005), the two issues of (i) quantitative measurement of biodiversity and (ii) its economic valuation play a major role. Concerning the first issue, there exists an extensive ecological literature (see, for example, Pielou 1975; Magurran 1988; Purvis and Hector 2000) to which, lately, economists have made important contributions (e.g. Solow et al. 1993; Weitzman 1992, 1993, 1998; Weikard 1998, 1999, 2002; Nehring and Puppe 2002, 2004). Concerning the second issue, there also exists an extensive and still growing literature (e.g. Hanley and Spash 1993; Pearce and Moran 1994; Smith 1996; Goulder and Kennedy 1997; Nunes and van den Bergh 2001; Freeman 2003).
The conventional wisdom on the relation between these two issues seems to be that the quantitative measurement of biodiversity is a value-free task which precedes the valuation of biodiversity. In contrast to this view, I shall argue in this chapter that the measurement of biodiversity requires prior value judgements about biodiversity and its role in ecological-economic systems. The argument proceeds as follows. Section 2 briefly discusses why and how biodiversity can be thought of as an economic good, so as to provide a background for the discussion of the measurement of biodiversity. Section 3 then surveys different ecological and economic measures of species diversity. A conceptual comparison of those reveals systematic differences between the two.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Biodiversity EconomicsPrinciples, Methods and Applications, pp. 293 - 310Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007
References
and 1975. On Measures of Information and their Characterizations. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
, , , , , , , , , , , and 2002. Economic Valuation with Stated Preference Techniques – A Manual. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2005. Measuring the diversity of what? and for what purpose? a conceptual comparison of ecological and economic biodiversity indices. Working Paper, available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=894782Google Scholar
2006. Natural Science Constraints in Environmental and Resource Economics. Problem and Method. University of Heidelberg, available at http://www.ub.uni.heidelberg.de/archiv/6593Google Scholar
, and 1998. Ecology – Individuals, Populations, and Communities. 3rd ed. Sunderland: Sinauer.Google Scholar
and 1970. Diversity of planktonic foraminifera in deep sea sediments. Science. 168. 1345–1347.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and 2002. Mammal population losses and the extinction crisis. Science. 296. 904–907.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
1992. Genetic diversity and the agony of choice. Biological Conservation. 61. 11–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(ed.). 1997. Nature's Services: Societal Dependence on Natural Ecosystems. Washington, DC: Island Press.Google Scholar
1991. An evolutionary basis for conservation strategies. Science. 253. 750–752.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
2003. The Measurement of Environmental and Resource Values. Theory and Methods. 2nd ed. Washington, DC: Resources for the Future.Google Scholar
Goulder, L. H. and Kennedy, D. 1997. Valuing ecosystem services: philosophical bases and empirical methods. In Daily, G. C. (ed.). Nature's Services: Societal Dependence on Natural Ecosystems. Washington, DC: Island Press. 23–47.
(ed.). 1992. Global Biodiversity: Status of the World's Living Resources. A Report Compiled by the World Conservation Monitoring Centre. London: Chapman & Hall.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heal, G. 2000. Biodiversity as a commodity. In (ed.). Encyclopedia of Biodiversity, vol. 1. New York: Academic Press. 359–376.Google Scholar
1973. Diversity and evenness: a unifying notation and its consequences. Ecology. 54. 427–431.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and 2000. Implications of endemics-area relationships for estimates of species extinctions. Ecology. 81 (12). 3305–3311.Google Scholar
and 2001. Vom Wert der Biodiversität – über konkurrierende politische Theorien in der Diskussion um Biodiversität. Zeitschrift für angewandte Umweltforschung – Journal of Environmental Research. Special Issue 13. 27–44.Google Scholar
and 1967. The Theory of Island Biogeography. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
1988. Ecological Diversity and its Measurement. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
May, R. M. 1975. Patterns of species abundance and diversity. In and (eds.). Ecology and Evolution of Communities. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 81–120.Google Scholar
May, R. M., Lawton, J. H. and Stork, N. E. 1995. Assessing extinction rates. In and (eds.). Extinction Rates. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1–24.Google Scholar
1988. Economics and Biological Diversity: Developing and Using Economic Incentives to Conserve Biological Resources. Commissioned by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), Gland, Switzerland.
, , , and 1990. Conserving the World's Biological Diversity. Commissioned by the IUCN, World Resources Institute, Conservation International, World Wildlife Fund-US and the World Bank. Washington, DC: World Bank.Google Scholar
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005. Ecosystems and Human Well-Being: Synthesis Report. Washington, DC: Island Press.
1983. A Wealth of Wild Species: Storehouse for Human Welfare. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Myers, N. 1989. Loss of biological diversity and its potential impact on agriculture and food production. In and (eds.). Food and Natural Resources. San Diego, CA: Academic Press. 49–68.Google Scholar
and 2004. Modelling phylogenetic diversity. Resource and Energy Economics. 26. 205–235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and 2001. Economic valuation of biodiversity: sense or nonsense?Ecological Economics. 39. 203–222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and 1990. Economics of Natural Resources and the Natural Environment. New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf.Google Scholar
1974. The measurement of species diversity. Annual Review of Ecological Systems. 5. 285–307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , , and (eds.). 1995. Biodiversity Loss: Economic and Ecological Issues. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plotkin, M. J. 1988. The outlook for new agricultural and industrial products from the tropics. In E. O. Wilson (ed.). BioDiversity. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. 106–116.
and 1995. On the value of a collection of species. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management. 29. 298–303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, and 1993. Searching for uncertain benefits and the conservation of biological diversity. Environmental and Resource Economics. 3. 171–181.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and 2000. Valuing research leads: bioprospecting and the conservation of genetic resources. Journal of Political Economy. 108. 173–206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rényi, A. 1961. On measures of entropy and information. In (ed.). Proceedings of the Fourth Berkeley Symposium on Mathematical Statistics and Probability, Vol. I. Berkeley: University of California Press. 547–561.Google Scholar
1995. Species Diversity in Space and Time. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1948. A mathematical theory of communication. Bell System Technical Journal. 27. 379–423 and 623–656.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, and 1996. Valuing biodiversity for use in pharmaceutical research. Journal of Political Economy. 104. 163–185.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1996. Estimating Economic Values for Nature: Methods for Non-Market Valuation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.Google Scholar
, and 1993. On the measurement of biological diversity. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management. 24. 60–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turner, R. K. 1999. The place of economic values in environmental valuation. In and (eds.). Valuing Environmental Preferences – Theory and Practice of the Contingent Valuation Method in the US, EU, and Developing Countries. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. 17–41.Google Scholar
, and 1991. What to preserve? systematics and the agony of choice. Biological Conservation. 55. 235–254.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , Baste, I., Dias, B., Gamez, R., Janetos, T., Reid, W. and Ruark, R. (eds.). 1995. Global Biodiversity Assessment (published for the United Nations Environment Programme). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
1998. On the measurement of diversity. Working Paper No. 9801. University of Graz, Austria: Institute of Public Economics.
2002. Diversity functions and the value of biodiversity. Land Economics. 78. 20–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1993. What to preserve? an application of diversity theory to crane conservation. Quarterly Journal of Economics. 108. 155–183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and (eds.). 1992. Tropical Deforestation and Species Extinction. London: Chapman & Hall.Google Scholar
- 1
- Cited by