Market-based instruments (MBIs) for resource management create financial incentives for people and businesses to use resources more efficiently, within a regulatory context designed to ensure that ecological, social and cultural objectives are also met. Three case studies were done to identify...

The Uruguay Round trade agreement includes a new programme of work to examine the relationship between trade and environmental policies. Environmental groups remain suspicious that trade liberalisation will undermine or discourage improvements in environmental standards. In this paper, the use...

Retiring land from crop production under the Conservation Reserve Program is expensive and often unnecessary. Instead, more emphasis should be placed on providing incentives for farmers to reduce erosion by adopting better cropping practices. This would cost less than current programs and allow...

Review of "Freer Trade, Protected Environment: Balancing Trade Liberalization and Environmental Interests." By C. Ford Runge.

We conducted an online choice survey to inform advice to the Tasman District Council on setting management objectives for multiple uses and values across several catchments. One sub-sample was recruited via a survey company and a second via a public call with prize draw. From a survey with...

The River Values Assessment System (RiVAS) uses a combination of expert panels and multi criteria analysis to identify primary attributes (or main features) of river values (e.g., whitewater kayaking, native birds) and their key indicators. The resulting data set is used to rank rivers for their...

Market-based instruments (MBIs) for resource management create financial incentives for people and businesses to use resources more efficiently, within a regulatory context designed to ensure that ecological, social and cultural objectives are also met. Three case studies were done to identify...

Conventional wisdom says that equity concerns are beyond the scope of economic analysis and that achieving equity objectives will often come at a cost in terms of efficiency. Examination of the underlying meaning of efficiency and how it is defined, however, reveals that this tension between...