Timothy M. Swanson

Ivory is big business, and in some parts of Africa elephants have been hunted almost to extinction in the quest for it. The losses to African economies have been catastrophic. Now there is an international ban on the trade and conservation is. the principal goal. This should be a matter for rejoicing, but nothing is quite so simple. The authors of this book have looked at the overall statistics, including those for countries where the elephant population is stable. They have considered the multiplicity of economic and social functions fulfilled by ensuring that elephant herds survive, tourism, a variety of ecological purpose. and, finally, as a source of ivory. They show how the careful management of elephants as a resource can best serve African interests. This book is at the cutting edge of economic thinking and provides a model for the consideration of the difficult relationship between people and wildlife. Originally published in 19990

Ivory is big business, and in some parts of Africa elephants have been hunted almost to extinction in the quest for it. The losses to African economies have been catastrophic. Now there is an international ban on the trade and conservation is. the principal goal. This should be a matter for rejoicing, but nothing is quite so simple. The authors of this book have looked at the overall statistics, including those for countries where the elephant population is stable. They have considered the multiplicity of economic and social functions fulfilled by ensuring that elephant herds survive, tourism, a variety of ecological purpose. and, finally, as a source of ivory. They show how the careful management of elephants as a resource can best serve African interests. This book is at the cutting edge of economic thinking and provides a model for the consideration of the difficult relationship between people and wildlife. Originally published in 19990

The ozone layer is threatened by chemical emissions, the climate is endangered from fossil fuels and deforestation, and global biodiversity is being lost by reason of thousands of years of habitat conversions. Global environmental problems arise out of the accumulated impacts from many years' and many countries' economic development. In order to address these problems the states of the world must cooperate to manage their development processes together - this is what international environmental agreements are designed to do. But can the world's countries cooperate successfully to manage global development? How should they manage it? Who should pay for the process, as well as for the underlying problems? This book presents an examination of both the problems and the processes underlying international environmental lawmaking: the recognition of international interdependence, the negotiation of international agreements and the evolution of international resource management. It examines the general problem of global resource management by means of general principles and case studies and by looking at how and why specific negotiations and agreements have failed to achieve their targets. The book, commissioned by UNCTAD to assist policymakers, especially in developing countries. It will also be of interest to practitioners in the areas of environmental economics and law and to scholars studying global environmental policy making and institution building.

During the summer of 1992, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro was hailed as a watershed moment in the ecology movement. Over 100 nations signed a new international treaty intended to conserve biological diversity. Yet, every day, species-many not even discovered-are driven into extinction and the ecological crisis continues to be a pressing global problem. Stressing the need to build bridges between the scientific community and international policymakers, Timothy Swanson here develops a new theory of the interplay between human society and the biological world. Biodiversity regulation, he argues, must focus specifically on the regulation of the global economic forces driving species into extinction. As the global development process becomes increasingly sophisticated, the spectre of a homogenized biosphere looms large. Yet, while biological diversity is responsible for a host of global benefits, it confers few tangible gains onto individual nations that offset the financial advantages of exploiting these same natural resources. The same economic rationale that drives farmers to grow coca leafs instead of grain compels countries to exploit natural resources, rather than conserve them. In order to stave off the decline of biological diversity, Swanson proposes the creation of specific policies that will internalize the benefits of biodiversity on a national level.

Swanson's book provides a good framework for understanding the extinction process in deeper socio-economic terms, and for evaluating some of the suggestions that have been made to arrest the decline. I am sure it will be of great interest to environmental economists working in this area.' - A. Markandya, Harvard Institute for International Development 'Tim Swanson's International Regulation of Extinction is the most important work on biodiversity to appear for many years. It should cause all concerned, environmentalists, economists, governments, regulators, international agencies to think again. They have misunderstood the causes of extinction, and have misdirected many of their policies as a result. Tim Swanson's work will spawn a whole new era of research. Most importantly, it can help save the world's biodiversity.' - Professor David Pearce, Director, CSERGE, University College London The book presents an economic analysis of the forces contributing to the global decline of biological diversity, and the policies available to control extinctions. The first part of the volume sets forth a revised economic theory of extinction, incorporating the terrestrial and institutional constraints on maintaining existing diversity. It analyses the existing conflicts between human development and biological diversity, entailing an application of the economic theory of learning-by-doing and global nonconvexities. The second half of the volume demonstrates the inefficiency of decentralised (multinational) regulation of biological diversity, and develops the range of approaches available in a global (international) approach to the resource. The policies analysed include transferable development rights, wildlife trade regimes, and intellectual property rights. The book concludes with a proposed agenda for the specification of the framework convention on biological diversity adopted at UNCED in Rio de Janeiro.