title: The cost of policy simplification in conservation incentive programs.
abstract: Incentive payments to private landowners provide a common strategy to conserve biodiversity and enhance the supply of goods and services from ecosystems. To deliver cost-effective improvements in biodiversity, payment schemes must trade-off inefficiencies that result from over-simplified policies with the administrative burden of implementing more complex incentive designs. We examine the effectiveness of different payment schemes using field parameterized, ecological economic models of extensive grazing farms. We focus on profit maximising farm management plans and use bird species as a policy-relevant indicator of biodiversity. Common policy simplifications result in a 49-100% loss in biodiversity benefits depending on the conservation target chosen. Failure to differentiate prices for conservation improvements in space is particularly problematic. Additional implementation costs that accompany more complicated policies are worth bearing even when these constitute a substantial proportion (70% or more) of the payments that would otherwise have been given to farmers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA. p.armsworth@utk.edu
authors.forename: Paul R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Armsworth
authors.forename: Szvetlana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Acs
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dallimer
authors.forename: Kevin J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Gaston
authors.forename: Nick
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hanley
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wilson
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000191:economics* / Q000379:methods*; D058735:Environmental Policy; D009042:Motivation