| Conservation of biodiversity is considered a key component of sustainable development. Strategies to conserve the world's biodiversity have expanded from various extensions of ecological theory to embrace ideas from a broad array of disciplines. The inclusion of ideas from one of these fields, economics, has been controversial, and there is much disagreement on whether economic behaviour contributes to biodiversity conservation, or reduces the prospects thereof. I show here, through a combination of papers at both intercountry and local scales, that economic behaviour contributes to the loss of biodiversity in some instances, but may provide incentives for conservation in others. Rises in per-capita incomes cause country-level pressure on biodiversity to increase for most taxonomic groups, although birds show declining numbers of threatened species at higher income levels (Chapter 2). Recent country-level growth in per-capita income is correlated with liquidation of natural capital, as measured by clearing of original forest (Chapter 3). These large-scale results suggest that continued economic growth will exacerbate biodiversity loss, assuming that underlying mechanisms remain constant. At a local scale, I examined the linkages between avian biodiversity, nature tourism, land-use, and sustainable development at Mabira Forest Reserve, Uganda. Avian species richness and community composition are strongly influenced by land-use type, with subsistence agricultural areas harbouring few forest species (Chapter 4). Realistic levels of tree-planting are unlikely to lead to increased capacity for forest biodiversity conservation. On the other hand, an experimental assessment of tourist preferences for avian biodiversity showed that tourists are willing to pay increased entrance fees for the chance to see higher numbers of birds (Chapter 5). This demand curve for biodiversity was combined with the opportunity costs of biodiversity conservation, based on deforestation patterns and current agricultural rents, to evaluate the potential for tourism to conserve the reserve's avifauna (Chapter 6). Current market conditions would conserve at most 114 of 143 species; this total would increase to 131 (∼90%) if entrance fees were raised to revenue-maximising levels. This suggests that local “biodiversity markets” could play a positive role in conservation strategies. |
