Florian Hartig Theoretical Ecology & Ecological Data Science

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Metapopulations, Markets and the Individual: Refining incentive-based approaches for biodiversity conservation on private lands

Florian Hartig

PhD thesis, University of Osnabrück (2010)
Cite this
@phdthesis{hartig2010metapopulations,
  author = {Florian Hartig},
  title = {Metapopulations, Markets and the Individual: Refining incentive-based approaches for biodiversity conservation on private lands},
  school = {University of Osnabrück},
  year = {2010},
}

Full text

Abstract

When designing financial incentives for voluntary conservation of threatened habitats and ecosystems, we are faced with the problem that there is no single indicator for “biodiversity value”. The value of a habitat depends on multiple factors such as habitat type, area, and spatial and temporal connectivity. Moreover, not only are there local trade-offs between these indicators, but land use changes at one location may also change the value of sites in the vicinity. This doctoral thesis analyzes the consequences of including trade-offs and interactions between sites in market-based conservation schemes. We ask the following questions: How can trade-offs between the survival of different species be quantified? How can spatial processes and temporal processes be included in market-based conservation, in particular the value of spatial and temporal connectivity? And how do underlying economic dynamics relate to the spatio-temporal allocation of conservation measures in market-based conservation schemes?

What the paper shows and why it matters (AI-generated)

Hartig's doctoral thesis, done at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) in Leipzig under Martin Drechsler and Horst Malchow. It asks how payments for voluntary conservation on private land can reflect a site's real value when that value depends on habitat type, area and connectivity in space and time, and on what happens on neighbouring land. Its core chapters are the market-design papers listed separately on this page: the time horizon in multi-species planning, smart spatial incentives, the EcoTRADE game and "Stay by thy neighbor?".