Testing the feasibility of a hypothetical whaling‐conservation permit market in Norway |
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| Authors: | Biao Huang Joshua K Abbott Eli P Fenichel Rachata Muneepeerakul Charles Perrings Leah R Gerber |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Environment and Natural Resources, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany;2. School of Sustainability, Global Institute of Sustainability, and ecoSERVICES Group, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, U.S.A.;3. Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Yale University, New Haven, CT, U.S.A.;4. Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, U.S.A.;5. ecoSERVICES Group, School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, U.S.A.;6. Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Science, School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, U.S.A. |
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| Abstract: | A cap‐and‐trade system for managing whale harvests represents a potentially useful approach to resolve the current gridlock in international whale management. The establishment of whale permit markets, open to both whalers and conservationists, could reveal the strength of conservation demand, about which little is known. This lack of knowledge makes it difficult to predict the outcome of a hypothetical whale permit market. We developed a bioeconomic model to evaluate the influence of economic uncertainty about demand for whale conservation or harvest. We used simulations over a wide range of parameterizations of whaling and conservation demands to examine the potential ecological consequences of the establishment of a whale permit market in Norwegian waters under bounded (but substantial) economic uncertainty. Uncertainty variables were slope of whaling and conservation demand, participation level of conservationists and their willingness to pay for whale conservation, and functional forms of demand, including linear, quadratic, and log‐linear forms. A whale‐conservation market had the potential to yield a wide range of conservation and harvest outcomes, the most likely outcomes were those in which conservationists bought all whale permits. |
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| Keywords: | conservation demand economic uncertainty free riding whaling demand demanda de la caza de ballenas demanda de la conservació n incertidumbre econó mica polizó n |
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