An assessment of the economic benefits of biodiversity in Saudi Arabia

The author outlines the biodiversity resources of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, their economic benefits and many and multifaceted uses. The need to preserve this valuable economic and cultural asset through sustainable use is emphasized.     

Aggregating the benefits of environmental improvements: distance-decay functions for use and non-use values

One of the main problems in using environmental cost-benefit analysis is deciding on the relevant population: whose benefits should we count? This is important since aggregate benefits depend on both per-person benefit and the number of beneficiaries. Yet this latter term is often hard to evaluate. Distance-decay functions are one way of addressing this problem. In this paper, we present estimates of distance-decay functions for a particular environmental improvement, namely a reduction in low flow problems on the River Mimram in Southern England. We do this both for users and non-users, in the context of a contingent valuation study of the benefits of improving low flow conditions. We test whether distance-decay effects for mean Willingness to Pay are stronger for a single environmental good (the River Mimram, in this case) than for a more inclusive set (here, all rivers in Thames region which suffer from low flow problems). Finally, we explore the impact on part-whole bias, in terms of the relationship between WTP for an individual site and WTP for a more inclusive group of sites, of allowing for distance-decay effects.     

Assessing the benefits of community forests: an evaluation of the recreational use benefits of two urban fringe Woodlands

In 1989 the Countryside and Forestry Commissions launched a national programme to create Community Forests on the fringes of major towns and cities in England and Wales. The assumption that such forests will be of benefit to the community at large was tested by means of surveys of two existing multi‐purpose woodlands adjacent to major conurbations. Contingent valuation, travel cost and time cost methods of environmental valuation were used to estimate the existing user benefits of the two woodlands for recreation. The study highlights weaknesses in the travel cost approach when applied to recreational facilities located near urban fringe areas which can be accessed on foot. The results of the two surveys are discussed and compared with similar results for more rural woodlands/ forests. The study suggests that on social grounds at least the concept of Community Forests should be pursued with recreation benefits alone exceeding management costs by a factor of three.     

Economic use value of the Belize marine ecosystem: Potential risks and benefits from offshore oil exploration

The announcement of plans for exploratory oil drilling at a number of offshore sites in Belize raised concerns about the risks associated with drilling, particularly given the socio‐economic importance of the marine ecosystem. The current economic value of fisheries and marine ecotourism is estimated, along with the potential revenue from offshore oil and potential economic losses stemming from oil pollution, under various assumptions on risk and uncertainty. Marine fisheries and ecotourism are estimated to generate around US$ 183 million per year. Single‐year estimated maximum revenue is higher for oil extraction initially but quickly declines; during a 50 year (two generation) period, total discounted benefits from marine fisheries and ecotourism are estimated at US$ 5.1 billion, compared to US$ 3.2 billion from offshore oil revenue. Following a hypothetical oil spill, discounted losses in marine fisheries and ecotourism due to perception and ecological impacts are estimated at US$ 912 million, with clean‐up costs and capital losses of US$ 6.1‐10.4 billion. Considering the short extraction life of oil resources compared to fisheries and ecotourism, the difference in benefits increases substantially in favour of the latter with a longer time horizon. A recent public referendum resulted in a 98% vote against oil exploration and a subsequent annulment of oil concessions pending environmental impact assessments.     

The significance of environmental impacts: an exploration of the concept

Since environmental impact assessment (EIA) is concerned primarily withsignificant environmental impacts, the concept of impact significance deserves to be defined and applied rigorously. In this article use of the term over the past 15 years in EIA documentation is reviewed. Some recent attempts at elucidating the concept are summarized. Four perspectives on impact significance that emerged from a series of workshops on the ecological basis for EIA are presented. These perspectives include (a) statistical (related to problems of isolating project-induced changes from natural variation), (b) ecological (related to the importance of project-induced changes from a purely ecological perspective), (c) social (related to the acceptability of project-induced changes in important environmental attributes), and (d) project (related to whether project-induced changes will indeed influence project decision making). The following synthesis is proposed: Any exercise in judging the significance of an environmental impact should thoroughly consider (a) the importance of the environmental attribute in question to project decision makers, (2) the distribution of change in time and space, (c) the magnitude of change, and (d) the reliability with which change has been predicted or measured. The implications of considering these factors are discussed.     

Assessing the impacts and values of agricultural and rural landscapes: an application of nonparametric statistical methods

The effects of agricultural and rural landscapes can be evaluated in a number of ways. This paper reports on the first stage of a project to assess the effects through a hedonic house price model.     

Carrying capacity as "Informed Judgment": the values of science and the science of values

Contemporary park and wilderness carrying capacity frameworks rely on formulation of standards of quality, which are defined as minimum acceptable resource and social conditions. Formulation of standards of quality involves elements of both science and values, and both of these elements must be integrated into informed judgments on the part of park and wilderness managers. That is, managers must ultimately make value-based judgments about the maximum acceptable level of visitor-caused impacts to the resource base and the quality of the visitor experience. However, such judgments should be as informed as possible by scientific data on the relationships between visitor use and resulting impacts and the degree to which park and wilderness visitors and other interest groups judge such impacts to be acceptable. Such information represents the “values of science” to managing carrying capacity in parks and wilderness. A growing body of literature has begun to address the corresponding “science of values,” and how this type of information might be integrated in park and wilderness management. Visitor-based research has employed normative theory and techniques to explore the acceptability of a range of resource and social impacts related to visitor use, and findings from these studies are being integrated into a body of knowledge and applied in management decision-making. Conceptual and methodological extensions of the normative approach are currently being explored in a variety of park and wilderness contexts, and new theoretical and empirical approaches are being adapted to address trade-offs inherent in carrying capacity. In these ways, the science of values is progressing to meet the opportunities and challenges of the values of science to park and wilderness management. The concept of carrying capacity, along with the theoretical and methodological approaches described in this paper, can be extended to a large number of natural resource and environmental issues.     

Global localism: Recentering the research agenda for biodiversity conservation

Global environmental crisis narratives about biodiversity loss promote conservation research on how human activities impact natural resources and link scientific findings to protectionist policies. This paper critiques how local knowledge, over space and through time, is constructed for these studies and integrated with ecological measures and qualitative interpretations of biodiversity conditions. As a case example, we describe how ethnoecological research at Mt. Kasigau, a biodiversity hot spot in Southeastern Kenya, changes ‘scientific’ views on human–resource relations. Species richness in woody plants and local knowledge about trees show resource continua on the mountain that question the designation of diverse undisturbed forests and degraded human‐utilized lands. Local narratives document spatially dynamic and adaptive relationships between the Kasigau Taita and their plant resources as they moved up and down the mountain in response to environmental conditions and extra local forces. We argue that greater ‘local learning’ about local places is important to hypothesizing and potentially guiding ‘global action’ for biodiversity conservation.     

Floral biodiversity: a question of survival in the Indian Thar Desert

The Thar Desert of North-west India has sprung into prominence recently because of nuclear testing in 1998. It occupies about 3 million km² of diverse habitat. Each of the various habitats and landforms in the desert supports distinctive plants. 682 plant species have been identified including 107 grasses. Plants are removed for fuel, fodder, fencing and other farming, domestic and commercial purposes. There are about 200 species of plants with recognised medicinal uses in the desert. The medicinal usefulness of others is yet to be established. Commiphora wightii, Withania somnifera and Urginia indica have high glycoside content and are valued for gums and used in ayurvedic medicines for enhancing mental retention and memory enhancement. Such plants are being indiscriminately exploited for fuelwood.     

Increasing the public benefits of agricultural conservation easements: an illustration with the Central Valley Farmland Trust in the San Joaquin Valley

Agricultural conservation easements (ACEs) involve the significant expenditure of public funds through either tax benefits and/or direct public expenditures. The selection of agricultural parcels for conservation should, therefore, maximise net public benefits to the extent possible within financial constraints and the need for agricultural viability to maintain working landscapes. Some programmes select agricultural parcels for conservation easements based only on agricultural viability and/or land cost, however, without explicit consideration of the many other public benefits often associated with ACEs. This paper illustrates application of a method for increasing the public benefits of agricultural conservation easements through a case study in the northern San Joaquin Valley of California. The method is a strategic planning process that incorporates both a GIS-based quantitative assessment and a more qualitative assessment. Such an approach is a supplement to – rather than a substitute for – the more science-based Landscape Evaluation and Site Evaluation (LESA) approach developed by the US Soil Conservation Service (SCS) and cost-minimisation approaches that emphasise economic considerations. However, we show that public land use planning and regulatory policies are essential for agricultural conservation. Acquisition strategies in isolation will not be successful without complementary public regulatory policies.     

Air Quality Management: Participatory Ranking of Control Measures and Conflict Analysis

The ranking of air quality control measures according to a number of evaluation criteria and with the participation of a large number of interested publics is demonstrated. A pilot study for the South Coast Air Quality Management District of California serves as the reference point. Several methodological considerations are addressed, such as: (a) the enhancement of criterion priorities to account for the variability among the performance of the control measures when incommensurable impact levels are applied: (b) the derivation of alternative rankings according to the priorities of potential coalitions; (c) the assessment of the potential acceptability of a collective ranking given the degree of solidarity among participants with similar interest affiliations; and (b) the assessment of the extent to which the performance of specific control measures may override priority differences and lead to insignificant ranking differences.     

The application of an indicator based on taxonomic distinctness for UK marine biodiversity assessments

Mankind needs to use the resources and opportunities offered by the marine environment while protecting ecological processes and systems. This is the foundation for sustainable development, which can only be achieved by adopting an appropriate management approach. Whether internationally or at a regional scale, successful management of marine ecosystems needs to be based on a scientifically robust approach to monitoring environmental change. Within such a framework, the conservation of marine biological diversity is problematic, as many conventional measures of diversity are not appropriate for measuring the types of change that require management. New indicators are required and in this paper we summarise some of the current methodology being used to derive such indices, which may be used to evaluate the effectiveness of marine stewardship initiatives. Through a series of examples we demonstrate the application of the taxonomic distinctness indicator of biodiversity to marine environmental assessment and its development towards becoming an operational tool.     

Assessing stock and change in land cover and biodiversity in GB: an introduction to Countryside Survey 2000

Countryside Survey 2000 (CS2000) is the latest in a series of surveys designed to measure and evaluate stock and change of land cover, landscape features, freshwaters, habitats and the vegetation of Great Britain. The ideas behind CS2000 developed during the 1960s and 1970s and culminated in the first survey of vegetation and land cover in 1978. One kilometer sample squares were selected at random using an environmental stratification. Subsequent surveys took place in 1984, 1990 and 1998, revisiting the original sample locations, whilst progressively expanding in scope and sample size; CS2000 included soils, breeding birds, remotely sensed imagery, freshwater biota and hydromorphology. Countryside Survey data may be interpreted using the pressure-state-response model, by selecting indicators of process and quality, and by identifying models of expected responses to different pressures. Thus, results showing losses of hedgerows between 1984 and 1990 stimulated new protection for these features. Ideally, CS2000 data should be used to stimulate experiments to distinguish between different pressures, in order to ensure that policy and management responses are both appropriate and achievable.The experience from CS2000 may prove helpful for the design and management of other large scale monitoring programmes of ecosystems. In particular, the scope of the survey, and the use to which the data are applied, have evolved through time, and yet continuity was essential for change to be detected efficiently. These objectives were reconciled by collecting the data in a disaggregated form, allowing a high degree of flexibility in both analysis and reporting.     

Valuing the benefits of the urban forest: a spatial hedonic approach

This paper measures the benefits of the urban forest by examining its effect on housing prices. A Geographic Information System is used to develop a measure of the urban forest, the Normalised Difference Vegetation Index, from satellite imagery and to construct other variables from a variety of sources. Spatial hedonic housing price models for the Indianapolis/Marion County area are estimated. The models indicate that greener vegetation around a property has a positive, significant effect on housing price, holding everything else constant. This effect is dominated by measures at the neighborhood level. These findings indicate that property owners value the urban forest, at least in part, by the premium they pay to live in neighborhoods with greener, denser vegetation. These findings also indicate that public action to maintain and enhance the urban forest may be warranted. Planners and urban foresters can use these findings to inform public and policy debates over urban forestry programs and proposals.     

Improving the farmland biodiversity value of riparian buffer strips: conflicts and compromises

The intensity of management of lowland grassland fields in the United Kingdom, coupled with the fact that such grasslands dominate much of the lowland landscape, means that there are now few opportunities for many plants, invertebrates, birds, or mammals to survive. The Scottish Agricultural College (SAC) has investigated whether fencing off the margins of such fields next to watercourses to control diffuse pollution has any positive impacts on biodiversity, based on assessments of vegetation composition and condition and structure of assemblages of invertebrates of importance as foodstuffs to farmland birds. Fencing watercourses increased the abundance of key groups of invertebrates. However, the invertebrate species diversity was not increased unless the margins were ≥ 5.4 m in width. Margins established in the study area to prevent access by livestock to watercourses or to enhance biodiversity are generally ≤ 2.6 m wide and are therefore unlikely to provide conditions for additional invertebrate species to use. The dense, tall swards within such margins are also unlikely to provide foraging opportunities for farmland birds. Management (such as low-intensity grazing by livestock in the margins) is essential to provide the conditions required for these groups, but this could conflict with the diffuse pollution mitigation aims. A compromise is proposed whereby limited autumn/winter grazing by livestock could be used to open the vegetation structure in the margins. Grazing by livestock at that time may be acceptable since it is not occurring in the period of main diffuse pollution concern (i.e., the fecal contamination of watercourses and bathing waters in the spring and summer). It is also essential that a landscape-scale approach is taken, driven by knowledge of the full needs of the species concerned, when deciding where best to target agri-environmental actions aimed at farmland bird conservation.     

Watershed protection: Capturing the benefits of nature's water supply services

Healthy watersheds provide valuable services to society, including the supply and purification of fresh water. Because these natural ecosystem services lie outside the traditional domain of commercial markets, they are undervalued and underprotected. With population and development pressures leading to the rapid modification of watershed lands, valuable hydrological services are being lost, which poses risks to the quality and cost of drinking water and the reliability of water supplies. Increasing the scale and scope of programmes to protect hydrological services requires policies that harmonize land uses in watersheds with the provision of these important natural services. This article summarizes key attributes of hydrological services and their economic benefits; presents a spectrum of institutional mechanisms for safeguarding those services; discusses programmes in Quito (Ecuador), Costa Rica and New York City; and offers some lessons learned and recommendations for achieving higher levels of watershed protection.     

From the enclave to the city: the economic benefits of immigrant flexibility

While much attention has been paid to the entrepreneurial “base” of the ethnic economy, the enclave is primarily composed of thousands of hourly employees working in small co-ethnic or multi-ethnic immigrant firms. The US economy benefits from over 10?billion dollars in taxed income and wages from immigrants whose social security numbers do not match up with their employee tax identification numbers. Multiple mismatches and misinformation about immigrants (from an economic, cultural, and political standpoint) demonstrate the need to understand the unique potential of immigrant communities in facilitating urban growth. Koreatown in Los Angeles, an ethnic enclave economy that is also a central business district for many immigrant workers, is one emergent example of new types of flexibility around citizenship status and semi-formal jobs as they are negotiated on a daily basis in the neighbourhood. Previous studies of the ethnic enclave have maintained that there is a singular importance to the co-ethnic network (Korean to Korean, or Cuban to Cuban, for example), and yet this traditional characterisation of the ethnic enclave does not hold true in most urban ethnic enclaves, which include multiple ethnic groups working side by side. Interviews with Korean and Latino workers demonstrate the ways in which people (including undocumented individuals) contribute to the local economy, and informally communicate in neighbourhoods and cities to build a broader social and economic network outside of enclave boundaries.     

Direct and indirect benefits of improving river quality: quantifying benefits and a case study of the River Klang,Malaysia

This paper describes the potential benefits to be gained from improving the quality of urban rivers and evaluates the methods commonly used to quantify such benefits. The difficulties encountered in quantifying non-use benefits in developing countries are discussed with particular reference to the River Klang that drains the urban conurbation of Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, where as in many other locations in developing countries the only potential benefits are the most difficult to justify, namely indirect and non-use benefits.     

The biodiversity crisis and the future of evolution

A large proportion of existing species — possibly half, conceivably even more — may be lost within the foreseeable future. But this may not prove to be the most consequential outcome of the current biodiversity crisis. More significant could be the disruption and degradation of several basic processes of evolution. It appears likely that for mass extinction episodes (MEEs) in the geological past, the recovery period usually lasted at least five million years. Because of certain unique features of the present MEE — notably the near elimination of biomes such as tropical forests, wetlands and coral reefs, which have served as powerhouses of evolution in the past — the bounce-back phase could extend several times longer than five million years. Among distinctive features of future evolution could be; in the short term, homogenization of biotas, a proliferation of opportunistic species, an outburst of speciation among particular taxa, and a pest-and-weed ecology; and, in the long term, a decline of biodisparity, the elimination of megavertebrates, an end to speciation among large vertebrates, and multiple constraints on origination, innovation and adaptive radiation. These disruptive phenomena would rank among the most prominent departures in the entire course of evolution. Full knowledge and understanding of what may characterize future evolution remains largely a black hole of research. As a consequence, conservation policies fail to reflect a further problem of the biodiversity prospect, perhaps exceeding the better recognized problem of the mass extinction of species.Professor Norman Myers is an Editorial Board member and regular contributor toThe Environmentalist. He is an Honorary Visiting Fellow at Green College, Oxford. This paper is a greatly expanded version of a preliminary probing in a popular magazine a decade ago (Myers, 1985). It has been prompted by a major international conference organized by the US National Academy of Sciences, scheduled for late 1996.