A study on the valuing of biodiversity: the case of three endangered species in Brazil

Abstract

Using the analysis developed by Montgomery et al. (J. Environ. Econ. Manage., 1999) as a starting point, this study establishes the bounds limits to the management price for the conservation of biodiversity. This means, how much the household would be willing to pay to finance a conservation program for three endangered species in Brazil. This program must be restricted to the change in habitat with regard to public benefits associated with biodiversity. Here, this increment in habitat means the marginal benefit derived from the increase in the size of the population. An important point of this paper is that we work with the robust instrument called the Population Viability Analysis (PVA) that estimates the survival probability of the species in the future given a current exogenous disturbance. We show that the results are very sensitive to the parameters of the model, mainly the population's current size and the degree of diversity. We also show that the total amount spent on conservation in Brazil is below the socially optimal level, considering only the three species analyzed in this study.