Making economic valuation work for biodiversity conservation
ISBN 1 9208 6034 7
About the booklet
Jointly sponsored by the Biological Diversity Advisory Committee, the Australian Government Department of the Environment and Heritage, and Land and Water Australia, this booklet explores what economic valuation techniques can contribute to biodiversity conservation. It draws on a national workshop on the Economic Value of Biodiversity held in 2003 by the Department of the Environment and Heritage, and Land and Water Australia.
It asks why biodiversity valuation techniques aren’t more widely used in the decision-making process, explores how they can be made more accessible for decision makers and provides some practical recommendations for economists, ecologists and decision-makers.
This booklet reviews the use of economic techniques for valuing biodiversity, and is illustrated by Australian case studies. These show that despite some shortcomings there remains untapped potential, especially for the use of revealed preference techniques like production function and hedonic pricing, to aid decision making.