environmental valuation and tourist dollars

Don McAllister mcall at superaje.com
Tue Nov 21 14:17:16 EST 2000



"Spurgeon,James" wrote:

> In response to some recent issues raised regarding the problem of "tourist
> dollar values", I'd like to make the following points:
>
> In an ideal world there would be no need for the contentious placing of
> money values on environmental resources like coral reefs. ....

It is good to encounter a note of optimism amidst the gloom encircling the fate
of coral reefs.

I have read several economic evaluations of coral reefs and have written a
couple myself.  I do have one question though, how many cases do you know of
where the economic evaluation of coral reefs where the study has reversed
development. Our environmental, environmental and social evaluation of Shiraho
coral reef for the Species Survival Commission of the IUCN back in 1988 was
followed by cancellation of the planned jumbo jet airport, and possibly that was
connected to our EIA.  But how many others are there?  My environmental,
economic and social evaluation of the costs of degraded and lost reefs in the
Philippines seems, though quoted by the cognizanti, to have been ignored by
decision makers.

don
Don McAllister
Ocean Voice International
www.ovi.ca


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