NATURE IN THE BALANCE: THE ECONOMICS OF BIODIVERSITY
Dieter Helm and Cameron Hepburn (editors)
Oxford University Press; xx + 416 pages
All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful,
The Lord God made them all.
- Cecil Frances Alexander
Evolutionary biologists may quibble over the popular Anglican hymn, but one thing is clear: irrespective of how "things" and "creatures" came about on this planet, we know for sure how they are now becoming extinct. Unlike previous five mass extinctions over the past 540 million years, this time around it is not microbes or meteorites but humans that are the cause. In a short span of 20 years since the Earth Summit in 1992, the Living Planet Index of biodiversity declined 12 per cent globally and by as much as 30 per cent in the tropics.
If humans are single-mindedly destroying the planet's biological diversity (or biodiversity), can they also be its saviours? Can the dismal science of economics and economists save Mother Nature? Can an economist caricatured as "someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing" actually help prevent this mass extinction?
For Dieter Helm and Cameron Hepburn, both economics professors at Oxford University, the answer is obviously yes. Why else would they expend time and effort to compile a fat tome with 15 chapters running into more than 400 pages? Of course, their task is made easier since two-thirds of the chapters (and pages) have appeared previously in the in-house Oxford University journal Oxford Review of Economic Policy, which they edit. Be that as it may, they believe neglect of economics to be the root cause of the problem: "(T)reated as separate from the economy, and without regard to the economics of biodiversity, the destruction will go on largely unchecked."
The problem with this book is not that it argues for a central role for economics in biodiversity preservation; it is that much of the book does not tell us anything new - environmental economists are well versed in valuation methods (and, in any case, have access to the Oxford Review of Economic Policy, where much of this appeared earlier). Secondly, the contributors are western-based academics and their take on the role of economics in biodiversity does not resonate with the concerns and priorities of poor countries, where the bulk of the world's biodiversity - and its people - is to be found. For example, the book does not address squarely the conflict between livelihoods and biodiversity preservation, which is of key concern to poor countries. The battle raging over the fate of the Western Ghats and over the "controversial" Gadgil and Kasturirangan Committee reports would hardly be informed by this book. But then, the ivory towers of academia in British and American universities are far removed from the lives of billions of people in Asia and Africa.
A third problem is the intrinsic difficulty of creating a coherent book out of papers that were essentially written separately and meant to be read as stand-alone pieces (recall their previous avatar as papers in the Oxford Review of Economic Policy symposium). This leads to some repetition - biodiversity is defined in several chapters, for instance - and unevenness of quality.
Chapters one and two are a preview of the book (less charitably, a "CliffsNotes", aka kunji in Hindi) with much overlap. It would have been more "efficient" if the editors had combined them into one - after all, they wrote both. Chapters three to five contain new material compared to the rest of the book - especially chapter three ("Biodiversity: Its Meanings, Roles and Status"). An excellently crafted exposition of the meaning, roles and status of biodiversity, chapter three is a must read. Chapter 4 ("Identifying and Mapping Biodiversity: Where Can We Damage?") is most provocative. It proposes criteria for a "biodiversity triage", where some areas are more expendable than others. The premise is that while conservationists would want to preserve everything, "the luxury of conserving all biodiversity is not an option".
Chapters six and seven, the core of the book, focus on valuation of ecosystem services and biodiversity. They disappoint. Chapter six ("Valuing Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity") is part literature review and part laundry list of well-known methods of valuation, while chapter seven ("The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity: Challenge and Responses") is a summary of and a plug for a report commissioned by the European Commission. The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) report was motivated by another one commissioned by the United Kingdom government ("Stern Review: The Economics of Climate Change"). The latter was a deeply flawed and hastily put together document that made a strident case for early action on global warming. The same can be said of TEEB report in the context of biodiversity.
The next two chapters look at the economic role of biodiversity from top down. Chapter eight ("Natural Capital") revisits the well-trodden topic of depletion of natural capital and its implications for sustainable development. Chapter nine ("Biodiversity and National Accounting") includes biodiversity in national accounts in a strange manner - the value of biodiversity is approximated by the value of land in protected areas, which in turn is valued the same as the least productive agricultural land in a country. The remaining six chapters are all reprinted (with some modification) from the Oxford Review of Economic Policy.
This book musters/recycles western scholarship to address an important problem, namely, loss of biodiversity, whose incidence and impact are disproportionate in the poorer parts of the world. By this yardstick, it leaves much to be desired and, in doing so, highlights a gap that needs to be filled urgently.
The reviewer is with the Delhi School of Economics
sgupta@econdse.org
Dieter Helm and Cameron Hepburn (editors)
Oxford University Press; xx + 416 pages
All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful,
The Lord God made them all.
- Cecil Frances Alexander
Evolutionary biologists may quibble over the popular Anglican hymn, but one thing is clear: irrespective of how "things" and "creatures" came about on this planet, we know for sure how they are now becoming extinct. Unlike previous five mass extinctions over the past 540 million years, this time around it is not microbes or meteorites but humans that are the cause. In a short span of 20 years since the Earth Summit in 1992, the Living Planet Index of biodiversity declined 12 per cent globally and by as much as 30 per cent in the tropics.
If humans are single-mindedly destroying the planet's biological diversity (or biodiversity), can they also be its saviours? Can the dismal science of economics and economists save Mother Nature? Can an economist caricatured as "someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing" actually help prevent this mass extinction?
For Dieter Helm and Cameron Hepburn, both economics professors at Oxford University, the answer is obviously yes. Why else would they expend time and effort to compile a fat tome with 15 chapters running into more than 400 pages? Of course, their task is made easier since two-thirds of the chapters (and pages) have appeared previously in the in-house Oxford University journal Oxford Review of Economic Policy, which they edit. Be that as it may, they believe neglect of economics to be the root cause of the problem: "(T)reated as separate from the economy, and without regard to the economics of biodiversity, the destruction will go on largely unchecked."
The problem with this book is not that it argues for a central role for economics in biodiversity preservation; it is that much of the book does not tell us anything new - environmental economists are well versed in valuation methods (and, in any case, have access to the Oxford Review of Economic Policy, where much of this appeared earlier). Secondly, the contributors are western-based academics and their take on the role of economics in biodiversity does not resonate with the concerns and priorities of poor countries, where the bulk of the world's biodiversity - and its people - is to be found. For example, the book does not address squarely the conflict between livelihoods and biodiversity preservation, which is of key concern to poor countries. The battle raging over the fate of the Western Ghats and over the "controversial" Gadgil and Kasturirangan Committee reports would hardly be informed by this book. But then, the ivory towers of academia in British and American universities are far removed from the lives of billions of people in Asia and Africa.
A third problem is the intrinsic difficulty of creating a coherent book out of papers that were essentially written separately and meant to be read as stand-alone pieces (recall their previous avatar as papers in the Oxford Review of Economic Policy symposium). This leads to some repetition - biodiversity is defined in several chapters, for instance - and unevenness of quality.
Chapters one and two are a preview of the book (less charitably, a "CliffsNotes", aka kunji in Hindi) with much overlap. It would have been more "efficient" if the editors had combined them into one - after all, they wrote both. Chapters three to five contain new material compared to the rest of the book - especially chapter three ("Biodiversity: Its Meanings, Roles and Status"). An excellently crafted exposition of the meaning, roles and status of biodiversity, chapter three is a must read. Chapter 4 ("Identifying and Mapping Biodiversity: Where Can We Damage?") is most provocative. It proposes criteria for a "biodiversity triage", where some areas are more expendable than others. The premise is that while conservationists would want to preserve everything, "the luxury of conserving all biodiversity is not an option".
Chapters six and seven, the core of the book, focus on valuation of ecosystem services and biodiversity. They disappoint. Chapter six ("Valuing Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity") is part literature review and part laundry list of well-known methods of valuation, while chapter seven ("The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity: Challenge and Responses") is a summary of and a plug for a report commissioned by the European Commission. The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) report was motivated by another one commissioned by the United Kingdom government ("Stern Review: The Economics of Climate Change"). The latter was a deeply flawed and hastily put together document that made a strident case for early action on global warming. The same can be said of TEEB report in the context of biodiversity.
The next two chapters look at the economic role of biodiversity from top down. Chapter eight ("Natural Capital") revisits the well-trodden topic of depletion of natural capital and its implications for sustainable development. Chapter nine ("Biodiversity and National Accounting") includes biodiversity in national accounts in a strange manner - the value of biodiversity is approximated by the value of land in protected areas, which in turn is valued the same as the least productive agricultural land in a country. The remaining six chapters are all reprinted (with some modification) from the Oxford Review of Economic Policy.
This book musters/recycles western scholarship to address an important problem, namely, loss of biodiversity, whose incidence and impact are disproportionate in the poorer parts of the world. By this yardstick, it leaves much to be desired and, in doing so, highlights a gap that needs to be filled urgently.
The reviewer is with the Delhi School of Economics
sgupta@econdse.org