Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
5050213 | Ecological Economics | 2013 | 8 Pages |
The aim of this paper is to compare different environmental policies for cost-effective habitat conservation on agricultural lands, when the desired spatial pattern of reserves is a random mosaic. We use a spatially explicit mathematical programming model which studies the farmers' behavior as profit maximizers under technical and administrative constraints. Facing different policy measures, each farmer chooses the land-use on each field, which determines the landscape at the regional level. A spatial pattern index (Ripley L function) is then associated to the obtained landscape, indicating on the degree of dispersion of the reserve. We compare a subsidy per hectare of reserve with an auction scheme and an agglomeration malus. We find that the auction is superior to the uniform subsidy for cost-efficiency. The agglomeration malus does better than the auction for the spatial pattern but is more costly.
⺠We examine habitat conservation on agricultural lands. ⺠The desired spatial pattern of reserves is a random mosaic. ⺠We compare a subsidy, an auction and an agglomeration malus. ⺠We use a spatially explicit mathematical programming model. ⺠Our modeling of the auction scheme is based on game theory.