Conference Agenda

Environmental restoration, as a compensatory mechanism for the development of previously undisturbed land, can play a significant role in fulfilling nature conservation objectives. Numerous local authorities have adopted spatial planning frameworks that incorporate nature targets, such as “no net loss” (NNL), often operationalized through net area or net biodiversity principles (i.e., area neutrality or no net loss in biodiversity).

This study employs an analytical economic model to evaluate the welfare implications of both municipal offset schemes and coordinated offset strategies across adjacent municipalities, accounting for ecosystem services that also benefit local communities. Intermunicipal cooperation in achieving NNL targets can improve overall welfare compared to isolated municipal strategies. Nevertheless, offset markets may lead to an inefficient spatial distribution of net development across municipalities when local values of nature are heterogeneous. We suggest that implementing an offset market based on environmental value metrics, rather than strict area-based neutrality (ambient permits), may mitigate some of the inefficiencies inherent in area-neutrality frameworks.

Human–wildlife conflicts are increasingly common in residential areas, causing injuries and the spread of zoonotic diseases. Governments have implemented measures such as extermination, land-use regulation, and deterrent fencing. In this process, because some wildlife has high ecological value, we should take account of trade-offs between conservation and human safety. We assess the welfare effects of several urban policies, using an ecosystem–urban economics model factoring in the spatial interactions between land use and wildlife foraging behavior. We introduce a novel policy: converting some farmland to crops preferred by wildlife to redirect animals away from residential zones. Our simulations show that the crop conversion consistently yields the highest welfare, improving outcomes by around 6% even compared to ideal fencing that entirely prevents animal intrusions into urban areas. In contrast, the widely-adopted extermination policy is relatively ineffective.

Offshore wind energy development presents both opportunities and challenges for coastal nations. This study introduces a novel modeling framework to predict the economic consequences of offshore wind farms (OWFs) on commercial fishing operations, explicitly accounting for the adaptive behaviors of fishing vessels. The model simulates fishing trip decisions, including site selection, effort allocation, and route optimization, under various OWF closure scenarios with and without transit options. Results indicate that the impacts of OWFs on fishing profits are non-monotonic, varying with vessel size, fishing site characteristics, and the spatial arrangement of wind farms. Furthermore, cumulative impacts of multiple closures are shown to deviate from the sum of individual closure effects, underscoring the need for models that consider a range of vessel adaptation behaviors to OWFs. The analysis provides insights for marine spatial planning and can inform the design of effective mitigation and compensation strategies for the fishing industry.

This article examines the management of spatially distributed renewable resources—specifically wildlife and infectious diseases—through the lens of economic and spatial analysis. I focus on "bads" like invasive species and diseases, which cause economic and ecological harm, and utilize population control and fencing as central mechanisms. I analyze how fencing influences resource flow and connectivity. On the one hand, in the presence of ecological and economic heterogeneities, fencing can be used to leverage spatial artbitrage opportunities. On the other hand, while promoted as a tool to incentivize the internalization of costs associated with ``bads", they may undo what Nature has rightfully done. In this sense, while fencing may be welfare improving in a setting with initially poor connectivity, an uncoordinated use of fencing, although welfare improving, is not welfare maximizing. The study develops a theoretical model that integrates aspects of stock and patch connectivity management and explores both cooperative and non-cooperative management strategies. The findings indicate that optimal management often requires a nuanced understanding of the spatial dynamics and economic costs associated with different control strategies. We present a series of propositions that characterize the conditions under which fencing and resource control strategies can be optimized, including the interaction effects of exclusionary and trap effects. This article contributes to the literature by highlighting the role of spatial heterogeneity in the management of renewable resources and providing insights into the formulation of more effective environmental policies, as it analyzes how to design policies on a subset of the landscape, to maximize economic and ecological benefits

Mangroves are critical ecosystems due to their significant capacity for carbon seques-

tration (blue carbon), biodiversity conservation, coastal protection, and contributions

to fisheries and local food security. Despite these benefits, mangrove forests around

the world face ongoing threats of degradation. Empirical evidence that evaluates the

effectiveness of institutional arrangements, such as protected areas or community-

based management specifically for mangrove conservation, remains limited. This

study provides causal evidence on the impact of collective land titling and community

governance on mangrove preservation along Colombia’s Pacific coast. Contrary to

global trends, mangrove coverage in this region has expanded over the past two decades,

a phenomenon attributed to collective property rights granted to Afro-descendant

communities through community councils. Using a staggered difference-in-differences

approach with high resolution annual data (2000-2022), we find that collective titling

has increased mangrove coverage by approximately 20%, with effects becoming evident

ten years after titling. In addition, we highlight the pivotal role of women within

these communities, whose leadership in defining and enforcing sustainable use norms

enhances cooperation and ecosystem restoration. These findings underscore the

importance of collective governance and gender-inclusive participation in conserving

and restoring vital coastal ecosystems.

Choice experiments are a workhorse tool in environmental valuation, yet a fundamental design decision, the number of alternatives shown in each choice task, remains under-tested despite its potential to affect incentive properties, cognitive burden, and welfare estimates. We provide new evidence on choice-set size effects in public-good valuation by experimentally varying the number of non–status quo options from one to five in an otherwise identical choice experiment on Baltic Sea environmental improvements. To disentangle a mechanical “more opportunities to match” effect from genuine behavioural change, we propose a novel simulation-based test that uses the binary SQ-versus-one-alternative format as an incentive-compatible benchmark. Under preference stability, we simulate expected choice frequencies for larger choice sets and compare them with observed frequencies. The deviations increase systematically with choice-set size and are most pronounced for the cost attribute: high-cost alternatives are chosen substantially more often than predicted in the largest formats. These results indicate that expanding choice sets is not a neutral efficiency gain; beyond moderate sizes it can induce heuristics and materially bias welfare inference.

One major challenge faced by worldwide economies is the decline and extinction of natural species as a direct consequence of human activities and the irreversible depletion of biodiversity. Today, the scientific debate is no more about the anthropogenic origins of biodiversity loss, but it concerns primarily more its effective magnitude and its ecological, economical and welfare consequences. To this end, quantifying and mapping human pressures on terrestrial ecosystems are crucial for anticipating biodiversity and socio-economic services losses. The Human Footprint Pressure (HFP) index is a comprehensive indicator of human pressure, taking into account various stressors related to human activities, such as agriculture, industry, population density, transportation. However, the results of these studies might not be representative of the effective impacts of human activities on biodiversity and ecosystem services due to the limited sampling adopted methods. In this work, we propose a new sampling method to compute the human pressure index that incorporates additional variables. To predict this index in a rapid and efficient manner, we introduce an original methodology that combines the advantages of spatially balanced sampling with spatial prediction techniques, which may enhance the efficiency and forecasting ability of the model. Empirical work covers data from the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Region, France.