Abstract

This study makes an explorative overview on two main research topics in economics of wildlife management: determination of population sizes and policy design. The results point out a large and comprehensive research on each of these issues, in particular on the estimation of values and costs of wildlife, where this information is necessary for the determination of population size. A drawback is that most of the value and cost studies do not relate their estimates to wildlife population size, which limits their usability for efficient policy design. Most valuation studies estimate the recreational value of hunting, which can range between 13 and 545 USD/hunting day (in 2013 prices), and two thirds of the included studies have been applied to wildlife in the USA. A majority of the studies on the costs of wildlife management calculate losses from carnivore predation on livestock and ungulate damage to crops, while a few consider dispersal of diseases and the cost of traffic collisions. Unlike valuation studies, several of the cost estimates apply to wildlife in developing and emerging economies. With respect to policy design the literature, which is mainly theoretical, suggests economic incentives for conflict resolution, where those suffering from wildlife damages are compensated for their losses. However, there are some issues which remain to be addressed by economists: relating costs and benefits to wildlife populations; estimating values and costs of wildlife in developing countries; evaluating wildlife policies in practice; addressing implications of uncertainty in population size, costs, and benefits for policy design; and estimating transaction costs for implementation and enforcement of wildlife policies.

Keywords

Costs; Benefits; Policies; Economics; Wildlife; Review

Published in

European Journal of Wildlife Research
2018, Volume: 64, number: 2, article number: 22
Publisher: SPRINGER

SLU Authors

• Gren, Ing-Marie

  • Department of Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Häggmark Svensson, Tobias

  • Department of Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Elofsson, Katarina

  • Department of Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Engelmann, Marc

  • Department of Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Associated SLU-program

SLU Plant Protection Network


Sustainable Development Goals

Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development


UKÄ Subject classification

Fish and Wildlife Management
Economics


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-018-1180-3

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/95000