Contribution in an anthology

Appeared in: 6th International BIOECON conference on Economics and the Analysis of Biology and Biodiversity : Kings College Cambridge, 2-3 September 2004 : programme and papers

Publication year: 2004

Pages: 1-17

URL: http://www.bioecon-network.org/pages/6th_2004/Nuppenau.pdf

Abstract: 

This contribution proposes opportunities to integrate ecological objectives and compensation payments for waivers on ecologically unfavourable land use practices into landscape modelling. It is based on a new approach using the ecological insight that heterogeneity in land use and less capital intensive farming positively impacts on bio-diversity and that diverse landscapes are a prerequisite to maintain inherited bio-diversity in cultural landscapes. In contrast, modern farm practices prefer homogeneity in land use and cropping; for instance, ever larger fields, monocultures, and substitution of pesticides for labour are today’s common practice. We discuss the basic question, of how an integrated modelling combining both, ecological and economic objectives of nature production and compensation payments, can be obtained, resulting in a cost effective payment scheme where property rights are with farmers. Geometrical interpretation of land use is a helpful approach for the definition of an interface between farming, landscape modelling, and ecological concerns. This interface is used to model a principal agent approach, in which farmers act as agents and the respective government as principal. It equally combines the economic rationale to have competitive incomes of farmers with the ecological rationale to design a most favourable landscape to preserve biodiversity. In order to integrate ecological oriented nature components into landscape planning, a proper payment scheme based on economic incentives has to be introduced. Such payment schemes become part of the farmers’ objective functions in a non-linear model. Core decision variables are the longitudinal stretch of field sizes and the transversal stretch of farm sizes. Ultimately, given various natural frames within an overarching subdivision of field parcels, farms and landscapes are optimised. The suggested approach is sequentially solved, taking natural conditions and behaviour into consideration. Essential elements are fields and their patterns. A central focus is directed to policy instruments: 1. Impacts of price policies on landscape structure (farm size) and ecology (field size) are taken into consideration. The growth of field sizes as a consequence of imposed price pressure, applications of modern technology, and income aspirations are depicted. 2. The ecological impacts of this process, directly related to intensity of farming, are addressed and measured as a diversity index. 3. Policies are selected that maintain farm income and correct for negative ecological effects of field size changes.

Harvard Citation style: Nuppenau, E. and Helmer, M. (2004) Biodiversity Management through Compensation Payments for Landscape Elements: On Spatial Aspects in Bio-Economic Modelling to get Cost Effectiveness, in 6th International BIOECON conference on Economics and the Analysis of Biology and Biodiversity : Kings College Cambridge, 2-3 September 2004 : programme and papers. Biodiversity and Economics for Conservation (BIOECON), pp. 1-17. http://www.bioecon-network.org/pages/6th_2004/Nuppenau.pdf

APA Citation style: Nuppenau, E., & Helmer, M. (2004). Biodiversity Management through Compensation Payments for Landscape Elements: On Spatial Aspects in Bio-Economic Modelling to get Cost Effectiveness. In 6th International BIOECON conference on Economics and the Analysis of Biology and Biodiversity : Kings College Cambridge, 2-3 September 2004 : programme and papers (pp. 1-17). Biodiversity and Economics for Conservation (BIOECON). http://www.bioecon-network.org/pages/6th_2004/Nuppenau.pdf