Title
Why does conservation minimize opportunity costs?
Author(s)
Smallhorn-West, Patrick F.; Pressey, Robert L.
Published
2022
Publisher
Conservation Science and Practice
Abstract
Effective management of depleted natural resources can be achieved only through changes in human actions. Opportunity costs represent the forgone benefits that would have flowed in the absence of conservation interventions. To the extent that opportunity costs reflect lost opportunities for extractive uses (e.g., fishing or logging), and to the extent that those extractive uses present threats to nature, opportunity costs therefore reflect the positive differences for natural values that can be made through conservation management. Thus, logic dictates that, if conservationists make choices to minimize opportunity costs, they are also necessarily limiting their impact. Unfortunately, empirical evidence from many conservation contexts implies that conservationists indeed make choices consistent with an aim to minimize opportunitycosts, and hence impact. A better understanding of the relationship between opportunity costs and conservation impact will make the language used to communicate conservation progress, targets, and planning more honest and accountable and more explicitly focused on the differences our actions make.
Keywords
biodiversity; conservation; conservation planning; counterfactual; impact evaluation; marine spatial planning; opportunity costs; protected areas; residual conservation
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PUB35782