Conservation the practical path

Since it is apparently de rigeur for every reviewer to begin with a criticism, it will be best to follow PeoL What could be Wamcbmt than the that the book Mrately the reader? Altho MIS dde claims to the issue of value of biodiver *a am does nothing kind. And little It is difficult CLO define biodiver ft Anne measure it 6@W sourningful way. beek disposes off this In a scaat 12-page "Introduction".

pbm things in perspective , it should be mentioned w do my outset that in w(comervation and BW nazinability. The comervation can be t miany grounds, of h b" in ity is only To *k extent, if no other, the methodology followed in the book is applicable to biodiversity issues. But, beyond that criticism, the book has much else to offer.

I am fully aware how difficult it is to target a lay readership and yet preserve the analytical rigour of a highly technical subject. In this, the authors have succeeded admirably. The basic argument is simple enough. It ascribes biodiversity loss to the failure of existing markets to capture the true value of natural resources. Because the owner of the resource gets the full value of its exploitation, but bears only a part of the costs involved, he tends to overexploit.

The heart of the analysis is that while it is relatively easy for the owner to quantify the private gains and losses from conservation, the evaluation at the higher levels is considerably more difficult, simply because there are no readily measurable values of social or global gains and losses. As a consequence, the playing field is tilted against conservation.

The bottom line is that there will always be an paservadordsm should take into consideradon ofmft#W resource exploitation optimal positive rate of biodiversity destruction so long as there is positive private benefit from the process of deforestation. The authors arrive at this conclusion from the explicitly economic or utilitarian approach they have taken.

However, this approach contains an inherent danger: given the difficulties in measuring social and global returns to conservation, and the limitations in devising economically rational costsharing mechanisms, the actual rate of degradation will continue to be considerably higher than the theoretical optimum.

The opposite, idealistic and somewhat impractical view of a complete ban on exploitation of natural resources has much to learn, in this context. It needs to ask the question: "what is required to stop any further deforestation?", and what degree of c6ercion will act as a sufficient deterrent to overexploitation. Obtaining these sanctions is then without any necessary economic justification. But even for such evangelists, this volume is highly recommended, since it brings together at one place the varions considerations that would have to be taken into account in devising the proper polemics.