ABSTRACT: A profusion of methodologies has been applied to the
valuation of ecosystems: contingent valuation (CV), hedonic valuation
(HV), travel costs (TC), aversion behavior (AB), contractual value
(e.g. Bioprospecting agreements), production value, and tourism
revenues, just to name a few. These methods may be used individually or
collectively depending on how appropriate each measure may be to a
particular natural asset. It is, however, well understood that
these methods tend to ignore non-use values (NUVs) such as:
biodiversity value (BV), geochemical value (GV), information value
(IV), social and cultural value (SCV). NUVs often involve esoteric
scientific concepts or, in the case of IV and SCV, are values which are
unique to a particular culture. The complexity and variability of
NUVs has meant that they are usually ignored or assigned a zero value.
If we are ever going to accurately calculate the NUV of natural areas
we need not only understand the scientific basis of this value but also
be able to communicate this scientific basis to stakeholders, policy
makers, and judicial officers. Furthermore, the ethical grounds
for this agenda must be made persuasive to the non-scientist.
There is a long, stubborn Western tradition of viewing nature as
valuable only insofar as it can provide goods for humans.
Ultimately, any argument for the NUV of nature must be brought in line
with this tradition. If we cannot convey to the non-scientist the
human utility of conserving species diversity (BV) and ecosystem
processes (GV) then the project fails.
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“Phase Shifts and Diminishing Biodiversity in Tree Species
Composition in a New York City Forest: A Sixty-Eight Year Study” (2005)
ABSTRACT: Urban conservation efforts in New York City include the
preservation of many acres of city forest. One such forest is the
NYBG forest in the Bronx. Using the results of two prior tree
censuses (1937 & 1985) taken at the forest, as well as a third
census taken in 2005, long term trends in this forest are
examined. The results show that this was once a Hemlock-Oak type
forest and has become a Maple-Birch-Beech type. Furthermore,
overall stem density and species richness show a significant
decline. In addition to the chronic urban stresses such as
trampling, arson, and vandalism noted in an earlier study, it appears
that disease, and, possibly, climate change are also contributing to
the new species assemblage in the forest. Whatever the ultimate
cause, however, forest biodiversity, both in terms or species richness
and abundance are in decline.
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“Economic Growth and Environmental Protection” (2006)
ABSTRACT: The question of whether GDP growth and economic
competitiveness are reconcilable with environmental protection is
central to the future of environmental policymaking around the
world. For industrialized nations, the question concerns the
potential loss of economic power. For developing nations, the
question concerns the ability to emerge sustainably from poverty.
For both, the question impinges upon benefit-cost analyses of economic
policies such as trade liberalization and environmental policies
designed to protect the global commons. Underlying this entire
issue are problems of environmental science and valuation, the
resolution of which requires “heroic assumptions about our knowledge of
the external costs resulting from ecosystem disruption, and how these
costs are imputed to the micro decisions that gave rise to them.” In
the following pages we take a look at some of these heroic assumptions.
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“Structural Adjustment, Deforestation and Population Growth: What We Have Learned” (2006)
ABSTRACT: Powerful ideas can have a life of their own. This
notion is well exemplified by one of the most intriguing and important
polemics in the field of sustainable development: the interaction of
structural adjustment, population growth, and deforestation. The long
shadows of Ricardo, Smith, and Malthus are evident throughout the
contemporary economic literature that explores this subject, serving as
a foundation of understanding. Hundreds of years later, their
notions of free markets, free trade, and wage rates permeate current
discussions. Structural adjustment is a term which in this
context refers to a variety of “economy wide and trade
liberalization reforms in developing countries” aimed at raising
productivity and exports from key sectors such as agriculture and
manufacturing. These reforms essentially seek to eliminate market
distortions caused by tariffs, taxes, and other such
interventions. By allowing free market and free trade
efficiencies to take their course, structural adjustment policies
strive to accelerate the economic development part of ‘sustainable
development.’ Underlying these adjustments are Smith’s notion of
the ‘invisible hand’ and Ricardo’s comparative advantage purportedly
working their wonders on the wealth of nations. This paper
presents a summary of some pertinent literature on the relationships
between economic and population growth and deforestation and then
presents statistical data prepared by the author to arrive at the
conclusion that in lesser developed countries population density and
land quality are what drive deforestation but that, as nations
experience economic growth, energy consumption (a proxy for income),
fertilizer use (a proxy for land quality), and distributional equity (a
proxy for traditional norms of cooperation) become the forces that
moderate deforestation.
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“What Exactly Is Sustainable Development?: A Brief Review of Intergenerational Equity Theory” (2006)
ABSTRACT: In 1989, the economist John Pezzey published a study in which
he collected some fifty definitions of sustainable development (SD) in
an attempt to forge a single, coherent expression of this
concept. He concluded that this was an “alchemist’s dream” since
too many alternative definitions exist. From there he proceeded
to explore whether there might be a “popular, empirical consensus” as
to the meaning of sustainability. This too proved futile. In the
end, Pezzey decided that the notion of sustainable development is a
subjective preference, not an economic constraint, which can vary from
place to place, time to time, and person to person. So much,
apparently, for an economics of sustainable development, which to avoid
confusion we now call intergenerational equity theory (IET). Undaunted,
we now return to this debate by considering Pezzey’s experience in the
light of six other economists and the World Bank.
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“Taking Environmental Ethics from Theory to Praxis” (2005)
ABSTRACT: If the dominant Western metaphysic is freedom, then ethical
philosophy can be thought of as the systematic prioritization of
conflicting claims on the right to attain that freedom and the
inevitable creation of constraints that must follow from such an
ordering of claims. To resolve the problem of competing claims, Western
ethicists tend to form hierarchical categories of moral agents based on
degrees and combinations of animation, sensation, rationality, and
mortality possessed by the agent. The lowest entities (inanimate,
insensate, irrational, and mortal) are guided solely by the law of
necessity, followed by entities ruled by instinct as well as necessity,
and finally, by those guided by reason, on top of the prior two
laws. Reason itself is broken into three tiers: practical reason,
intellectual reason and pure reason (in this discussion, pure reason is
defined as reason that pursues ‘free being’, discussed more fully
below). According to this system, a reasoning agent deserves greater
moral consideration than an instinctual agent and so on (although some
ethical systems may simply eliminate lower entities from moral
consideration entirely).
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“The United States and Biological Diversity” (2005)
ABSTRACT: On November 14, 2005, U.S. Public Law No. 109-102 approved an
$US 80,000,000 contribution to the Global Environment Facility (GEF),
the final installment of the GEF-3 replenishment. The United
States has been the first or second largest contributor to the GEF
since its inception in 1993. What is remarkable about this fact is that
the GEF is the main financial vehicle for the implementation of two
treaties that the United States has not ratified, the Climate Change
Treaty (which later evolved into the Kyoto Protocol) and the less well
known Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD; which likewise produced
the Cartagena Protocol). Meanwhile, the U.S. Ocean Commission,
appointed by President George W. Bush, recently recommended an
expedited review of the CBD for possible accession by the U.S.
Elsewhere in Paris, the fourth round of negotiations are about to begin
for GEF-4, a quadrennial event in which contributing nations pledge
their commitments of support for the next period. While the U.S.
position at these talks is not known, if the U.S. contribution stays at
prior levels, the pledged amount will represent about .0012% of the
GDP. These seemingly contradictory bills, treaties,
recommendations, contributions, and negotiations indicate a lack of
direction over the importance of biological diversity to the future of
the United States: the U.S. has thus far refused to accede to the CBD,
while remaining a major financial contributor in absolute dollars and a
minimal contributor from the perspective of GDP percentage. This
essay seeks to understand the philosophical underpinnings of the
impasse and in so doing provide some direction for a coherent national
policy on Biological Diversity.
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