Biološki fakultet

Univerziteta u Beogradu

Doktorske studije

Predmet: Konzervaciona ekologija i zaštita biodiverziteta

Seminarski rad

Ekonomska vrednost biološke raznovrsnosti i naša sazanja o tome

Student: Aleksandra Savić

Broj indeksa B3702/2009

Profesori: dr Slobodan Jovanović

dr Aleksandar Ćetković

2012. Beograd
Economics of biodiversity
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The biodiversity of the Masai Mara nature reserve in Kenya is a tourist attraction

There have been a number of economic arguments advanced regarding evaluation of

the benefits of biodiversity. Most are anthropocentric but economists have also
debated whether biodiversity is inherently valuable, independent of benefits to human.

Diverse ecosystems are typically more productive than non-diverse ones, because any
set of species can never fully exploit all potential niches. Since human economic
productivity is largely reliant on Earth's ecosystems, adequate bioproductivity needs
to be maintained.

The wealth of natural innovation found in biological organisms rivals all known
technologies derived through synthetic means. A single human genome has some
three billion bits of information but the human species also has many variations.
There are many millions of species of life on the planet each with valuable
information. Many chemical formulae and forty-five percent of all drugs have bio-
origin[citation needed]. In the long run keeping genetic records of all species could,
however, be just as useful in this regard.

Some of the important economic commodities that biodiversity supplies to humankind

are:

Contents
 [hide] 
 1 Food
o 1.1 Biological pest control
 2 Medication
 3 Industry
 4 Recreational harvesting
 5 Tourism and recreation
 6 See also

 7 References
[edit] Food
Main article: Biodiversity and food

Biodiversity provides high variety of food: crops, livestock, forestry, and fish are
important food source of human species. However, the number of species have been
domesticated and cultivated are small if comparing with the number of species
existing. Wild species and varieties can supply genes for improving domesticated
species by improving their yield, disease resistance, tolerance and vigor; this can
increase the profit of farming.

[edit] Biological pest control

A ladybird larva eating aphids

Main article: Biological pest control

Using control species is often considered as more enivronmentally friendly method

with compared with using pesticides. The control species can be used to protect the
crops against pests and weeds. The economic loss due to the loss of crops/food can be
reduced with the use of the control species.

Also, the population of disease vectors (for example, mosquitoes) and the invasive
species can be controlled; thus, the economic loss led by the invasive species and
vectors can be reduced.

However, even with extensive research into the control species, their use is a risky
business, as in the importation of the Cane Toad to control beetles in Queensland.

[edit] Medication
Main article: Biodiversity and drugs

A wide variety of plants, animals and fungi are used as medicine. Wild plant species
have been used for medicinal purposes since before the beginning of recorded history.
Over 60% of world population depends on the plant medicines for their primary
health care.[1] For example, quinine comes from the cinchona tree has been used to
treat malaria, digitalis from the foxglove plant treats chronic heart trouble, and
morphine from the poppy plant gives pain relief.
According to the National Cancer Institute, over 70 % of the promising anti-cancer
drugs come from plants in the tropical rainforests. It is estimated that of the 250,000
known plant species, only 5,000 have been researched for possible medical
applications. Ethnopharmacy is the branch of science that investigates traditional
medicines.

Animals may also play a role, in particular in research. In traditional remedies,

animals are extensively used as drugs. Many animals also medicate themselves.
Zoopharmacognosy is the study of how animals use plants, insects and other
inorganic materials in self-medicatation. In an interview with the late Neil Campbell,
Eloy Rodriguez describes the importance of biodiversity:

"Some of the compounds we've identified by zoopharmacognosy kill parasitic worms,

and some of these chemicals may be useful against tumors. There is no question that
the templates for most drugs are in the natural world." [2]

[edit] Industry
For example, fibers for clothing, wood for shelter and warmth. Biodiversity may be a
source of energy (such as biomass). Other industrial products are oils, lubricants,
perfumes, fragrances, dyes, paper, waxes, rubber, latexes, resins, poisons, and cork,
which can all be derived from various plant species. Supplies from animal origin
include wool, silk, fur, leather, lubricants, and waxes.

Animals may also be used as a mode of transport.

Biological material can provide models for many industrial materials and structures.
For example, the inspiration for the infrared sensor came from the thermosensitive pit
organ of rattlesnake. The modelling is considered as Biomimicry.

[edit] Recreational harvesting

Various animals are harvested for display and as pet; many species of plants are
harvested for personal and private gardening.

In Britain alone, some 65,000 species are sold for horticulture[citation needed]. It has been
suggested that this form of ex-situ conservation may be the most practical form in the
future.

[edit] Tourism and recreation

Main article: Ecotourism

Biodiversity is a source of economic wealth for many regions of the world, such as
many nature reserves, parks and forests, where wildlife and plants are sources of
beauty and joy for many people. Ecotourism, in particular, is a growing outdoor
recreational activity. In 1988, it is estimated that 157-236 million people took part in
ecotourism.[citation needed] The majority of species have yet to be evaluated for their
current or future economic importance.

[edit] See also

 Sustainable development portal
 Biodiversity Action Plan
 Environmental economics
 Endangered Species Recovery Plan

[edit] References
1. ^ Kevin J. Gaston & John I. Spicer. 2004. Biodiversity: an introduction, Blackwell
Publishing. 2nd Ed. ISBN 1-4051-1857-1
2. ^ Campbell, N. A. (1996) Biology (4th edition). Benjamin Cummings NY. p.23 ISBN
0-8053-1957-3

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?

title=Economics_of_biodiversity&oldid=487969153"

Environmental economics
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Environmental economics

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Environmental economics is a subfield of economics concerned with environmental

issues. Quoting from the National Bureau of Economic Research Environmental
Economics program:

“
[...] Environmental Economics [...] undertakes theoretical or empirical
studies of the economic effects of national or local environmental policies
around the world [...]. Particular issues include the costs and benefits of
alternative environmental policies to deal with air pollution, water quality,
toxic substances, solid waste, and global warming.[1] ”
Environmental economics is distinguished from Ecological economics that
emphasizes the economy as a subsystem of the ecosystem with its focus upon
preserving natural capital.[2] One survey of German economists found that ecological
and environmental economics are different schools of economic thought, with
ecological economists emphasizing "strong" sustainability and rejecting the
proposition that natural capital can be substituted by human-made capital.[3] For an
overview of international policy relating to environmental economics, see Runnals
(2011).[4]

Contents
 [hide] 
 1 Topics and concepts
o 1.1 Valuation
 2 Solutions
 3 Relationship to other fields
 4 Professional bodies
 5 See also
o 5.1 Hypotheses and theorems
 6 References
 7 Notes

 8 External links

[edit] Topics and concepts

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Central to environmental economics is the concept of market failure. Market failure

means that markets fail to allocate resources efficiently. As stated by Hanley,
Shogren, and White (2007) in their textbook Environmental Economics:[5] "A market
failure occurs when the market does not allocate scarce resources to generate the
greatest social welfare. A wedge exists between what a private person does given
market prices and what society might want him or her to do to protect the
environment. Such a wedge implies wastefulness or economic inefficiency; resources
can be reallocated to make at least one person better off without making anyone else
worse off." Common forms of market failure include externalities, non-excludability
and non-rivalry.

Externality: the basic idea is that an externality exists when a person makes a choice
that affects other people that are not accounted for in the market price. For instance, a
firm emitting pollution will typically not take into account the costs that its pollution
imposes on others. As a result, pollution in excess of the 'socially efficient' level may
occur. A classic definition influenced by Kenneth Arrow and James Meade is
provided by Heller and Starrett (1976), who define an externality as “a situation in
which the private economy lacks sufficient incentives to create a potential market in
some good and the nonexistence of this market results in losses of Pareto
efficiency.”[6] In economic terminology, externalities are examples of market failures,
in which the unfettered market does not lead to an efficient outcome.

Common property and non-exclusion: When it is too costly to exclude people from
access to an environmental resource for which there is rivalry, market allocation is
likely to be inefficient. The challenges related with common property and non-
exclusion have long been recognized. Hardin's (1968) concept of the tragedy of the
commons popularized the challenges involved in non-exclusion and common
property. "commons" refers to the environmental asset itself, "common property
resource" or "common pool resource" refers to a property right regime that allows for
some collective body to devise schemes to exclude others, thereby allowing the
capture of future benefit streams; and "open-access" implies no ownership in the
sense that property everyone owns nobody owns.[7]

The basic problem is that if people ignore the scarcity value of the commons, they can
end up expending too much effort, over harvesting a resource (e.g., a fishery). Hardin
theorizes that in the absence of restrictions, users of an open-access resource will use
it more than if they had to pay for it and had exclusive rights, leading to
environmental degradation. See, however, Ostrom's (1990) work on how people using
real common property resources have worked to establish self-governing rules to
reduce the risk of the tragedy of the commons.[7]

Public goods and non-rivalry: Public goods are another type of market failure, in
which the market price does not capture the social benefits of its provision. For
example, efforts to mitigate climate change would be a public good since the risks of
climate change are both non-rival and non-excludable. Such efforts are non-rival since
climate mitigation provided to one does not reduce the level of mitigation that anyone
else enjoys. They are non-excludable actions by one will have global consequences
from which no one can be excluded. A country's incentive to invest in carbon
abatement is reduced because it can "free ride" off the efforts of other countries. Over
a century ago, Swedish economist Knut Wicksell (1896) first discussed how public
goods can be under-provided by the market because people might conceal their
preferences for the good, but still enjoy the benefits without paying for them.