Does the Commercial Use of Wildlife Favour Conservation of Biodiversity? - Summary of Chapter 5 in BIODIVERSITY, CONSERVATION AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT Principles and Practices with Asian Examples (original) (raw)
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Economic use of wildlife can be consumptive or non-consumptive, commercial or non-commercial. Given the economic preoccupation of virtually all modern societies, wildlife of economic value or use is favoured for conservation. However, does its commercial use favour conservation? This depends largely on whether private property rights exist and are enforceable. If property rights can be economically established and commercial use of a species is profitable, a strong force exists for preservation. On the other hand, if private property rights do not exist and there is open-access to commercially valuable wildlife, the tragedy of the commons is liable to occur and species may be driven to extinction by commercialism. Farming of a wildlife species is one form of commercial use, but it does not necessarily favour conservation of biodiversity. Nevertheless, commercial farming of some species may be environmentally more favourable than others, e.g., farming of kangaroos rather than sheep or cattle in parts of Australia. Commercialisation and choice based on economic value .has selective impacts on the populations of living things. It changes the composition of species. It therefore alters the natural web of life and is bound to be unacceptable to followers of Aldo Leopold who saw virtue in the land ethic. The general tendency of commercialisation is to reduce biodiversity and thereby sustainability even though it may save some species from early extinction.
2008
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Commercial & Sustainable use of wildlife
Commercial sustainable use of wildlife has received increasing attention in recent years, both internationally and in Australia, as a tool to achieve both improved conservation and land management outcomes and support diverse, resilient rural economies and societies. While the concept remains relatively unfamiliar in Australia, a wide range of forms of wild resource utilisation offer the potential to achieve these objectives, including several “Sustainable Wildlife Enterprise” trials supported by RIRDC. This report examines the policy and regulatory constraints facing initiatives to conservation through sustainable use.
BIODIVERSITY, CONSERVATION AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT Principles and Practices with Asian Examples, 1999
Environmental and resource economics can play a significant role in effective planning for sustainable development and in devising measures for fostering nature conservation and retaining biodiversity. The character of its possible contribution is indicated in Chapter 2. Chapter 3 considers the importance of biodiversity conservation for a sustainable development by linking it with several different concepts of sustainable development. It also points out that the diversity of biological resources is a part of the stock of natural capital, and therefore gains significance in those models of sustainable development which stress the importance of conserving the stock of natural resources. The sustainability of ecosystems can be important from the point of view of sustainable economic development as well as for those who place weight upon nature conservation in its own right. While biodiversity conservation can be important for the sustainability of some ecosystems, its significance may well have been exaggerated. Certainly, some ecosystems containing great biological diversity appear not to be very sustainable, whereas others with little diversity seem to be very much so. Factors other than diversity are important for the sustainability of ecosystems and species, such as their adaptability, degree of biological tolerance and mobility. Furthermore, the concept of resilience of ecosystems is found to be inadequate as an indicator of the sustainability of ecosystems. It needs to be supplemented by other concepts, which are discussed, such as robustness. Biodiversity conservation may require disturbance of habitats. There is some evidence that biodiversity tends to be high in disturbed habitats. In considering the subject, we really need to examine the dynamics of ecological systems. However, as pointed out in Chapter 4, it does not follow that humankind, by disturbing more and more natural habitats, will increase global biodiversity. Furthermore, the impact of human disturbance in a locality depends on the nature and severity of that disturbance. A few biologists and some economists see the extension of private property rights, and greater economic use and sale of wildlife products and services as favourable to the conservation of wildlife and biodiversity. However, it is argued in Chapter 5 this is not necessarily so and that it may even distort the composition of the surviving biological stock. Furthermore, in Chapter 6 it is argued that the global economic system and the extension of markets are often unfavourable to the conservation of nature, as are the type of economic structural adjustment policies supported by the World Bank and the IMF O The matter is quite complex. Apart from considering the likely influence of the international economic system on biodiversity conservation, this chapter considers the impact of macroeconomic policy upon it and international externality and public good aspects of nature conservation, On a world scale, obtaining finance and distributing it on behalf of nature conservation is an important activity for many donors. Chapter 7 explores factors which should be taken into account by donors in allocating the money, and the economics of raising such funds. Sustainable development and conservation are always easier to achieve when they bring positive economic benefits to communities affected by these endeavours. Ecotourism is frequently seen as a promising method of reconciling nature conservation with economic benefits to local communities, and to countries possessing the living resources on which such ecotourism depends. In Chapter 8, features of ecotourism are discussed and factors favourable to its economic success or otherwise are outlined. Attention is also drawn to dangers and difficulties involved in developing ecotourism for nature conservation purpose so Part III of this book draws on experiences and cases from Asia, to illustrate the difficulties and challenges which economic growth poses for the conservation of nature and biodiversity. It considers some of the ways in which these challenges are being met, particularly in China. Although economic growth and economic globalization raise problems for nature conservation, they may also provide new opportunities for it, for example through the expansion of tourism. Many environmental changes and impacts on nature have occurred in Asia as a result of economic growth. These are considered generally in Chapter 9; this study then concentrates on case material from Xishuangbanna Prefecture in Southern Yunnan, an area of high biodiversity. Chapter 10 assesses the costs and benefits of nature conservation in the Xishuangbanna State Nature Reserve. Chapter 11 concentrates on issues involved in Xishuangbanna in trying to reconcile possible conflicts between economic development, nature conservation and local communities. Chapter 12 concentrates on the role of tourism in Xishuangbanna in fostering the conservation of nature and local communities. Protected areas do not always yield a 'win-win' situation for everyone. Protected areas often harbour pests from the point of view of nearby agriculturalists, and Xishuangbanna State Nature Reserve is no exception; elephants from this reserve sometimes do considerable damage to agricultural crops. This issue is discussed in Chapter 13. Most developing countries are short of finance for managing their protected areas and China has this problem too. Financial realities affect the management of protected areas and the strategies adopted by their managers, and this in tum impacts on the biological diversity actually protected. Features of this are discussed in Chapter 14 in relation to Xishuangbanna State Nature Reserve, but the political economy and public finance issues involved are not peculiar to this reserve. The penultimate chapter concentrates on North-east India. Like Yunnan, it is a region of rich biological diversity. However, this biodiversity is under considerable threat and a number of current economic activities in this region, such as slash-and-bum agriculture, are becoming unsustainable. There are many reasons for this; some have to do with institutional rigidities, such as failures to modify property rights in land (lack of co-evolution), as well as an increasing population, rising income aspirations, and the scarcity of local economic alternatives to natural resource utilisation. Serious biodiversity loss is in fact associated with the type of unsustainable economic change which is occurring in the area. Although this large region is peripheral to India, it is nevertheless one rich in biodiversity and it contains many different cultures. For these reasons it is worthy of global attention. The dynamics of its situation and the character of its human-natural environment interaction could also provide useful insights into other developing regions undergoing similar changes.
The Economics of Conserving Wildlife and Natural Areas
The material in this book is organized in four parts. Part I (this part) provides a general overview of the topics and issues covered in this book. Part II deals with general issues involved in biological conservation, especially biodiversity loss. Part III concentrates on policies for the conservation, use and management of wildlife species, particularly animals. In this part, general issues involving open-access or common-property are given attention and the management of particular species such as kangaroos, whales, dugong and Asian elephants are given specific consideration. Part IV covers economic aspects of protected areas, the economics of wilderness preservation, the utilisation and management of marine reserves, economic processes involved in deforestation in a national park in Indonesia, and aspects of forest management in China and India.
BIODIVERSITY, CONSERVATION AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT Principles and Practices with Asian Examples, 1999
The previous chapter considered how extension of the commercial use of wildlife might effect the conservation of biodiversity. It was argued that such extension is not always effective in protecting wildlife and that even in cases where it may be considered to be effective, it is usually selective in its conservation of species and variety. Therefore, it is likely to be inadequate in conserving biodiversity and the webs of life so dear to Aldo Leopold (1996). Private property rights and commercialisation of wildlife do not provide a complete answer to the conservation of biodiversity; protected areas need to be provided to ensure a more acceptable level of biodiversity conservation. A related economic matter poses the question: what effects do the extension of the market system and the process of economic globalisation have on the conservation of nature, including its biodiversity? This is taken up in this chapter.
Direct values were considered thus: -consumptive use value: non-market value of firewood, game, etc.
Wildlife Conservation and Economic Development in the West
1999
The economic expansion and population growth that have continued for almost a decade in many rural communities of the West are posing a new set of wildlife conservation issues for the region. Unlike economic development in the past, this expansion is not associated with the traditional economic base, but instead is tied to services sectors and wildlife amenities of the region.