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What potential problems does biodiversity loss create for humankind? What basis is there for biologists' concern about what has been described as the sixth mass extinction on our planet? The Biodiversity Programme of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences' Beijer Institute brought together eminent economists and ecologists to consider these and other questions about the nature and significance of the problem of biodiversity loss. This volume reports key findings from that programme. In encouraging collaborative interdisciplinary work between the closely related disciplines of economics and ecology, programme participants hoped to shed new light on the concept of diversity, the implications of biological diversity for the functioning of ecosystems, the driving forces behind biodiversity loss, and the options for promoting biodiversity conservation. The results of the programme are surprising. They indicate that the main costs of biodiversity loss may not be the loss of genetic material, but the loss of ecosystem resilience and the insurance it provides against the uncertain environmental effects of economic and population growth. Because this is as much a local as a global problem, biodiversity conservation offers both local and global benefits. Since the causes of biodiversity loss lie in the incentives to local users, that is where reform must begin if the problem is to be tackled successfully.
Table des matières
Introduction: Framing the problem of biodiversity loss C. Perrings, K.-G. Maler, C. Folke, C. S. Holling and B. O. Jansson; Part I. Conceptualising Diversity and Ecosystem Functions: 1.1. Diversity functions M.Weitzman; 1.2. Biodiversity in the functioning of ecosystems C. S. Holling, D. W. Schindler, B. W. Walker and J. Roughgarden; 1.3. Scale and biodiversity in coastal and estuarine ecosystems R. Constanza, M. Kemp and W. Boynton; Part II. Integrating Ecology and Economics in the Analysis of Biodiversity Loss: 2.1. Wetland valuation: three case studies R. K. Turner, C. Folke, I. M. Gren and I. Bateman; 2.2. An ecological economy: notes on harvest and growth G. Brown and J. Roughgarden; 2.3. Biodiversity loss and the economics of discontinuous change in semi-arid rangelands C. Perrings and B. W. Walker; Part III. The Economic Issues: 3.1. Economic growth and the environment K.-G. Maler; 3.2. The international regulation of biodiversity decline T. Swanson; 3.3. Policies to control tropical deforestation E. B. Barbier and M. Rauscher; 3.4. On biodiversity conservation S. Barrett; Part IV. Conclusions: 4.1. Unanswered questions C. Perrings, K.-G. Maler, C. Folke, C. S. Holling and B. O. Jansson; References.
Résumé
The book reports key findings of a research program in which economists and ecologists considered the consequences of biodiversity loss. While immediate causes of biodiversity loss lie in habitat destruction and harvesting, the underlying causes are incentives which encourage resource users to ignore the effects of their actions.
