Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Monetarna Vrednost Eko
Monetarna Vrednost Eko
Monetarna Vrednost Eko
Univerziteta u Beogradu
Doktorske studije
Seminarski rad
2012. Beograd
Economics of biodiversity
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this
article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be
challenged and removed. (May 2010)
The biodiversity of the Masai Mara nature reserve in Kenya is a tourist attraction
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.
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.
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.
[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.
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.
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.
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] 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
Environmental economics
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Part of a series on
Environmental economics
Concepts[show]
Policies[show]
Dynamics[show]
Carbon related[show]
v·
t·
e
“
[...] 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
Economics
Economies by region [show]
General categories
Microeconomics · Macroeconomics
History of economic thought
Methodology · Heterodox
approaches
Technical methods
Mathematical · Econometrics
Experimental · National accounting
Fields and subfields
Journals · Publications
Categories · Topics · Economists
The economy: concept and history
edit
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.