Open AccessNOAH'S NONCONCAVITY: ON THE EXISTENCE OF NONTRIVIAL INTERIOR SOLUTIONS TO THE PROBLEM OF COST‐EFFECTIVE CONSERVATION PLANNING
Author(s) -
HUNTER GREG
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
natural resource modeling
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.28
H-Index - 32
eISSN - 1939-7445
pISSN - 0890-8575
DOI - 10.1111/j.1939-7445.2008.00028.x
Subject(s) - cornerstone , biosphere , economics , plan (archaeology) , function (biology) , value (mathematics) , term (time) , microeconomics , computer science , ecology , biology , geography , physics , paleontology , archaeology , quantum mechanics , evolutionary biology , machine learning
The idea that species loss diminishes future information flows is a cornerstone of arguments for conservation planning. In his seminal work entitled The Noah's Ark Problem, Weitzman [1998] examines the problem of cost‐effective conservation planning from a theoretical perspective accounting for the affect planning has on the expected size of the biosphere's informative potential. This paper extends Weitzman's analysis by examining how his conclusions are altered by the introduction of a conservation authority that considers the value of information contained in the biosphere. Introducing nonquasiconcave preferences for the information contained in each species substantially modifies the characterization of a cost‐effective conservation plan. In particular, I find that a cost‐effective plan generally includes partial funding for many species and funds no species completely. This investigation is motivated by theoretical contributions to the information economics literature, a la Radner and Stiglitz [1984], showing that the value function for information tends to exhibit increasing returns.