Economics and biodiversity conservation options: an argument for continued experimentation and measured expectations

The paper explores the costs of alternative habitat conservation policies, including fee-simple acquisition, easements, tax incentives, and tradable development rights. We argue first that the baseline cost of preservation is invariant to the conservation policy used. In all cases, the baseline cost of conservation is the value of economically useful activities foregone in order to preserve habitat. There are differences, however, primarily in the transactional and institutional costs that arise when the policies are implemented. We explore these differences and illustrate them specifically with an analysis of conservation easements.