[Coral-List] Economic Valuation and market based conservation

Ulf Erlingsson ceo at lindorm.com
Fri Aug 26 10:31:11 EDT 2011


Nicolas said it well, either we change people's behaviors, or we  
internalize externalities. But let's remember that people do what is  
best for them, evolutionary principles apply also to humans and to  
social behavior.

However, different conditions favor different social behaviors. For  
instance, living on what is now Dogger Bank 20,000 years ago imposed  
a different set of conditions on society than living in Central  
America at the same time. Those in Europe faces continental-wide  
threats (severe cold) that threatened the entire population, but that  
could be effectively mitigated, especially by cooperation. In C.A. on  
the other hand, the deadly threats were more local (volcanic  
eruptions, earthquakes, landslides, flash floods, hurricanes) and  
were harder to mitigate, so that set of circumstances would tend to  
favor an opportunistic mentality where, rather than using resources  
on cooperation to mitigate disasters, the best strategy is to exploit  
maximally any opportunity offered to expand, e.g. after a disaster.

Keeping this in mind, the steering tools should be constructed such  
that the preferred behavior for the long term becomes the most  
advantageous behavior also for the short term. This can be done with  
village laws, taboos, taxes, local democracy, and so on.

So the bottom line is that it is not a matter of changing people's  
behaviors OR internalize externalities, but the latter is just a tool  
for accomplishing the former. And a good tool at that.

Ulf Erlingsson
Lindorm, Inc.

On 2011-08-26, at 05:01, Nicolas Pascal wrote:

> Dear all,
> I have read many comments on this topic and as one of the economist  
> consulted during the definition of the mini-symposium content, i  
> would like to give my point of view on it. The title is very  
> precise and for me has a concrete objective. There are market  
> failures well identified that "explain" the reef overfishing, the  
> impactful urbanism (with its physical and chemical impacts) and  
> other specific impacts. They generally imply private businesses  
> with an objective widely accepted by society: maximize benefits  
> (more or less legally). From an economic point of view, these  
> market failures can be solved in two ways (at least): (i)  
> installing a new economic/business model changing people behaviors  
> and/or (ii) setting up some instruments already existing in the  
> market to "internalize" the externalities (tax, PES, property  
> rights,...). The first one is definitively necessary but, let's  
> face reality, will ask a lot of time (surely too much for some reef  
> under threats). The second one is very on-the-ground and is one of  
> the objectives of the mini-symposium.
>
> NB: The previous reflects only my position and not the position of  
> the mini-symposium steering committee which is much richer with  
> anthropologist, geograph and banker perspectives....
>
> Best,
>
> Nicolas Pascal
> USR 3278 - CRIOBE (EPHE/CNRS)
> Insular Research Center and Environment Observatory
> Papetoai, Moorea, Polynésie française
> Biologie et écologie marine tropicale et méditerranéenne
> Université de Perpignan Via Domitia, Perpignan, France
> T : (+678) 7751292 / 5387744
> nicolas.pascal at criobe.pf
> www.criobe.pf
>
>
> Nicolas Pascal
> USR 3278 - CRIOBE (EPHE/CNRS)
> -Insular Research Center and Environment Observatory
> Papetoai, Moorea, Polynésie française
> -Biologie et écologie marine tropicale et méditerranéenne
> Université de Perpignan Via Domitia, Perpignan, France
> T : (+678) 7751292 / 5387744
> nicolas.pascal at criobe.pf
> www.criobe.pf
>
>
>
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