Choice Modelling is a technique that has recently emerged as a means of estimating the demand for environmental goods and the benefits and costs associated with them. The aims of the book are fourfold: * to introduce the technique in the environmental context * to demonstrate its use in a range of case studies * to provide insights into some methodological issues * to explore the prospects for the technique. The authors contributing to the book show that choice modelling offers considerable potential for the evaluation of environmental goods and services. Its flexibility to cope with a wide range of applications is well demonstrated. The technique also presents numerous challenges to practitioners. A number of these are addressed in the book. Informed and innovative, this book will prove indispensable to all scholars, researchers and practitioners in the areas of environmental studies and environmental economics.

Choice Experiments in Developing Countries is an invaluable one-stop presentation of the best-practice case studies implementing the choice experiment method in developing countries. It highlights the theoretical and practical issues that should be taken into consideration when applying this method in a developing country context.The expert contributors gather recent state-of-the-art choice experiment studies undertaken in several developing countries, in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. These focus on a variety of environmental and agricultural issues, underlining the versatility of this method in valuing a wide array of interventions (for example policies, public and private services, new technologies) and emphasizing the value of the method in informing efficient, effective and equitable policies for sustainable economic development.This work will be of great interest to academics and researchers of environmental economics, agricultural and resource economics, development, environmental management and planning, as well as national and international development agencies and NGOs. Civil servants and policymakers in developing countries will find the work and recommendations within this book engaging and inspirational.

This pathbreaking study illustrates and enhances the potential of cost-benefit analysis as a tool for decision-making. Advancing the incorporation of equity preferences in policy analysis, the authors demonstrate the application of choice modeling to the estimation of distributional weights suitable for inclusion in a cost-benefit analytical framework. A platform for discussion of the challenges and opportunities of this approach is presented in the form of a detailed case study designed to estimate community preferences for different intergenerational distributions. While the case study is focused on natural resource management and environmental policy, the conceptual and methodological advances illustrated by the authors are relevant and applicable to a wider array of policy deliberations. This book will prove a challenging and thought-provoking read for academics, students and policy makers with an interest in environmental issues and/or public sector economics. Contents: Foreword 1. Distribution and Environmental Policy 2. Distributional Weighting and Cost-Benefit Analysis 3. Choice Modelling and Distributional Preferences 4. Case Study: Design of Intergenerational Distribution Choice Experiment 5. Case Study: Results of Intergenerational Distribution Choice Experiment 6. Choice Modelling and Distributional Preferences: Challenges and Opportunities Bibliography Index

This book presents a detailed picture of the evolutionary processes at work in water markets with a particular focus on theory and practice in Australia. Policymakers are striving to strike a balance between the pros and cons of a property rights/market based approach to the allocation of water resources, as opposed to an approach that centres on government regulation. The current movement in Australia is toward the use of markets, and numerous reforms are either underway or under consideration in that direction. This provides an ideal opportunity to observe the factors at play in determining the balance and hence the mix of policy instruments at work. The distinguished contributors offer a range of perspectives - economic, legal, environmental - and combine conceptual analysis with evidence from real policy decisions. Policymakers and governmental advisers will find this book timely and extremely relevant to making decisions on what is arguably the world's most critical natural resource. The Evolution of Markets for Water will also be of great interest to academics and students with an interest in natural resource economics, law and management.

Non-market environmental valuation (NMEV) is undergoing a period of increased growth in both application and development as a result of increasing recognition of the role of economics in environmental policy issues. Against this backdrop, The International Handbook on Non-Market Environmental Valuation brings together world leaders in the field to advance the development and application of NMEV as a tool for policy-making. The expert contributors provide insights into the state of the art across the spectrum of both revealed and stated preference methods and highlight new directions being taken. A sequence of topical applications demonstrate various techniques and illustrate what can be achieved using NMEV: deliberately diverse case studies are drawn from Europe, North America, Asia and Australia with valuation targets ranging across use and non-use values of the environment. A number of reviews of cutting-edge issues are also presented. This outstanding resource will enable those interested in environmental valuation from theoretical, practical or policy perspectives to bring themselves to the forefront of developments and practice. As such, this Handbook will prove invaluable to a wide-ranging audience encompassing academics, researchers, students, practitioners and consultants involved in environmental economics and NMEV.Contributors: S. Bain, I.J. Bateman, J. Bennett, E.Y. Besedin, M.C.J. Bliemer, R. Brouwer, R.T. Carson, J. Champ, J. Cheesman, S. Colombo, J. Downing, J. Englin, S. Garcia, M. Giergiczny, A. Gonzalez-Caban, T. Groves, N. Hanley, J.A. Herriges, S. Hess, T. Holmes, Y. Jeon, R.J. Johnston, H.A. Klaiber, C.L. Kling, Y. Liu, J. Loomis, P.-A. Mahieu, K.E. McConnell, S. Navrud, A. Pang, G.L. Poe, P. Riera, J. Rolfe, J.M. Rose, E.T. Schultz, K. Segerson, V.K. Smith, J. Strand, P.J. Thomassin, D. Tinch, P. van Beukering, C.A. Vossler, X. Wang

Benefit transfer is the practice of estimating economic values at a target site by utilising the results of existing studies for different sites. It is commonly used to estimate values for changes in environmental conditions where time and cost factors constrain the direct application of non-market valuation techniques at the target site. The focus of this unique collection of case studies is the validity and accuracy of benefit transfer using choice modelling, rather than the traditional focus of transferring results from contingent valuation and travel cost models. The book includes a simple guide to using choice modelling results in a benefit transfer process, an overview of the theoretical issues involved, and a number of case studies from Australia, Finland, New Zealand, the UK and the US. The conclusion is that the benefit transfer process is not straightforward, but that use of the choice modelling technique allows for more 'automatic' adjustment of values by the factors that frame the case study of interest. This book will strongly appeal to a wide ranging readership, including academics, students and researchers involved in non-market valuation and benefit transfer research, policymakers requiring the use of benefit transfer in valuation studies, and consultants and researchers performing benefit transfer studies.

The management of natural resources located on private lands often involves a perceived conflict between the mix of private and public benefits they produce. This book is focused on one such issue: the design of policy relating to the production of wetland outputs in order to maximize private and social welfare. The authors first address the welfare impacts of alternative wetland management strategies on the wider community. They then concentrate on privately owned wetlands in Australia and find that they generate substantial public benefits. Furthermore, they are able to identify cost-effective avenues to increase these benefits. The authors then turn their attention to the integration of policy costs in decision-making and the implications for wetland policy. They highlight the fact that policy development and implementation is a costly process and in some cases can even outweigh the net benefits available from increasing wetland production. This important new book develops theory and policy for the provision of public goods from private land, and applies this to case studies of wetlands in Australia. It will be of great interest and practical value to environmental economists and policy makers working on the theory and application of economics to policy development. It will also appeal to environmental NGOs concerned about the effective production of environmental goods.

Non-market environmental valuation (NMEV) is undergoing a period of increased growth in both application and development as a result of increasing recognition of the role of economics in environmental policy issues. Against this backdrop, The International Handbook on Non-Market Environmental Valuation brings together world leaders in the field to advance the development and application of NMEV as a tool for policy-making. The expert contributors provide insights into the state of the art across the spectrum of both revealed and stated preference methods and highlight new directions being taken. A sequence of topical applications demonstrate various techniques and illustrate what can be achieved using NMEV: deliberately diverse case studies are drawn from Europe, North America, Asia and Australia with valuation targets ranging across use and non-use values of the environment. A number of reviews of cutting-edge issues are also presented. This outstanding resource will enable those interested in environmental valuation from theoretical, practical or policy perspectives to bring themselves to the forefront of developments and practice. As such, this Handbook will prove invaluable to a wide-ranging audience encompassing academics, researchers, students, practitioners and consultants involved in environmental economics and NMEV.Contributors: S. Bain, I.J. Bateman, J. Bennett, E.Y. Besedin, M.C.J. Bliemer, R. Brouwer, R.T. Carson, J. Champ, J. Cheesman, S. Colombo, J. Downing, J. Englin, S. Garcia, M. Giergiczny, A. Gonzalez-Caban, T. Groves, N. Hanley, J.A. Herriges, S. Hess, T. Holmes, Y. Jeon, R.J. Johnston, H.A. Klaiber, C.L. Kling, Y. Liu, J. Loomis, P.-A. Mahieu, K.E. McConnell, S. Navrud, A. Pang, G.L. Poe, P. Riera, J. Rolfe, J.M. Rose, E.T. Schultz, K. Segerson, V.K. Smith, J. Strand, P.J. Thomassin, D. Tinch, P. van Beukering, C.A. Vossler, X. Wang

Choice Experiments in Developing Countries is an invaluable one-stop presentation of the best-practice case studies implementing the choice experiment method in developing countries. It highlights the theoretical and practical issues that should be taken into consideration when applying this method in a developing country context.The expert contributors gather recent state-of-the-art choice experiment studies undertaken in several developing countries, in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. These focus on a variety of environmental and agricultural issues, underlining the versatility of this method in valuing a wide array of interventions (for example policies, public and private services, new technologies) and emphasizing the value of the method in informing efficient, effective and equitable policies for sustainable economic development.This work will be of great interest to academics and researchers of environmental economics, agricultural and resource economics, development, environmental management and planning, as well as national and international development agencies and NGOs. Civil servants and policymakers in developing countries will find the work and recommendations within this book engaging and inspirational.

Faced with intensified environmental degradation and decreased agricultural land productivity, the Chinese government has sought policy interventions to reverse both of these negative trends. Among the policy instruments is the Conversion of Cropland to Forest and Grassland Program (CCFGP) that aims to change the pattern of agricultural land use in 25 provinces and autonomous regions across China. This book provides the most comprehensive assessment of the CCFGP undertaken to date. It allows the consideration of fundamental questions pertaining to the sustainability of the land use changes brought about by the CCFGP, its cost effectiveness and the prospects for policy evolution. Contributions from a wide range of economists and scientists in the book provide policymakers in the Chinese government with relevant information with which to pursue more effectively agro-environmental goals. Providing an economic assessment of land-use policy in China, this book will be of great interest to policymakers and government advisers in China, international donor agencies, and academics and students with an interest in land-use policy and environmental and natural resource economics and management.

This enriching book presents a holistic overview of climate change uncertainty and offers a number of pathways that could be used to account for such uncertainties in the stated preference valuation research. It shows that uncertainty plays an important role in determining the values of climate change mitigation benefits and as the authors say 'If this uncertainty remains unaccounted for, there is a potential danger that the estimated economic values will misrepresent social preferences for public policy interventions to manage environmental externalities'. Valuing Climate Change Mitigation discusses the role of uncertainty in valuing the benefits of climate change mitigation policies using contingent valuation and choice experiments techniques. It treats climate change using three dimensions of uncertainty: scenario, policy and preference. Conceptual frameworks are advanced to account simultaneously for these various dimensions of uncertainty. The authors then explore the impact of introducing these uncertainties into benefit estimates for the Australian Carbon Pollutions Reduction Scheme. The authors present frameworks to account for multiple uncertainty in environmental decision analysis that will prove invaluable for academics and students in the fields of environmental economics and management. Policymakers will also gain invaluable methodological insight.

Three-volume collection of episodes from the children's animation following a little girl who becomes a princess. When her mother marries the king, Sofia (voice of Ariel Winter) becomes a member of the royal family overnight and moves into their grand palace. She will have to train for her new role as princess under the tutelage of fairies Flora (Barbara Dirikson), Fauna (Russi Taylor) and Merryweather (Tress MacNeille). In 'Holiday in Enchancia' Princess Aurora (Kate Higgins) makes an appearance and helps Sofia to find King Roland (Travis Willingham) when he disappears in a blizzard. The episodes are: 'Baileywick's Day Off', 'The Little Witch', 'The Baker King' and 'Four's a Crowd'. In 'Ready to Be a Princess' Princess Jasmine (Linda Larkin) comes to Sofia's aid when she encounters some difficulties on a magic carpet ride. The episodes are: 'A Royal Mess', 'The Shy Princess', 'Blue Ribbon Bunny', 'The Princess Test' and 'Two to Tangu'. 'The Floating Palace' includes a feature-length episode which sees Sofia run into trouble when she gets the chance to turn into a mermaid and visit her new underwater friend Oona (Kiernan Shipka). With the help of Princess Ariel (Jodi Benson), Sofia tries to prevent disaster both on land and under the sea. Also featured are three additional episodes: 'Tri-Kingdom Picnic', 'Finding Clover' and 'Make Way for Miss Nettle'.

This is the manual endorsed by professional guides, instructors, and recreational river runners everywhere. With comprehensive step-by-step coverage starting with the first run, it includes tips from top guides, outfitters, and instructors, plus the most complete guide to Class V rafting techniques ever assembled. This is the completely revised and updated successor to Bennetts best-selling manual, Rafting!.

Buying and Selling the Environment: How to Design and Implement a PES Scheme provides a guide to the design and implementation of PES schemes that 'mimic' market processes, including three key elements: the estimation of the demand for environmental services, an understanding of the costs of supply, and how to predict the productivity of actions taken. This book will act as an instructional manual for practitioners, policymakers and their advisors in government and non-government organizations. Users will find a step-by-step demonstration based on firsthand experiences gained through a PES application at two case study sites. Finally, the book presents research in applied economics and bio-physical modeling.

The natural environment matters a lot to many people. Their views on issues such as recycling, population control, economic growth and renewable energy are often held strongly and emotionally. But some of these views are best described as 'little green lies'. Sometimes people bend the truth because they believe they are protecting others from the harm caused by environmental decay. Others do it for personal gain. But unlike 'little white lies', telling 'little green lies' is not harmless. If they become so widely accepted that they form the basis of government policies, our society can be worse off for them. They can even end up causing environmental damage. There are twelve propositions addressed in the twelve chapters of this book: 'Peak Oil' has been reached. Renewable energy production should be stimulated. Consumption choices need to be informed by products' 'food miles'/'ecological footprint'/'embodied energy'/'virtual water'/'carbon footprint'. World population should be capped. Economic growth and trade are bad for the environment. No waste should go to landfill. Water and energy should be used 'efficiently', whatever it costs. The environment is of infinite value and must not be harmed. We must reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to avoid global climate change. The care of the environment cannot be entrusted to the private sector. Agriculture and mining are always in conflict with the environment.

Environmental management, either voluntary or imposed, can add to the costs of nature-based tourism businesses. Such costs can make tourism destinations less competitive, but the same activities can also enhance competitiveness by increasing demand. The aim of this book is to provide an assessment of the relative importance of these two opposing effects in the context of a case study of nature-based tourism in Tropical North Queensland, Australia.The authors estimate the demand side effects using discrete choice modelling to determine the impact of changing environmental conditions on the market share of a variety of tourist destinations. The costs of environmental management are also considered by analysing firm level data. The effects are then integrated using a model of the tourism market that is formulated around nature-based tourism regions. The results show that the competitiveness of a region is enhanced through its environmental management and highlight the importance of self-regulation in the industry when the environment is a common property resource. The authors also draw some insightful conclusions regarding business strategies that would aid the profitability of firms and regions supplying nature-based tourism products. The conceptual foundations developed in the book are not restricted by national boundaries and the empirical analyses can be extended to other nature-based tourism destinations and to other relevant policy issues. As such, this book will have a broad appeal amongst environmentalists, scholars of tourism economics and management, and policymakers concerned with the regulation of the tourism industry and its effect on the environment.