Jonathan Atkins

This chapter provides a review of marine social and economic data and tools that may facilitate the incorporation of social and economic data into decision-making for sustainable coastal management. The results show that there is good information on provisioning services and a range of methods, but social information is often lacking or not at the appropriate scale. The recommendation is therefore to further develop and adapt models that incorporate social and economic information and cover the full pathway from environmental pressures to changes in ecosystem services and human wellbeing.

This chapter examines the potential relationship between ecosystem services provided by coastal ecosystems and the design and management of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). While all coastal and marine habitats provide a range of ecosystem services, the implementation and management of an MPA may result in improvements in the quality or supply of an ecosystem service as pressures upon protected features are minimised. This chapter focuses on the United Kingdom (UK) and examines the contrasting approaches to MPA designation applied in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. We argue that MPAs are able to influence ecosystem services and this is dependent on design concepts such as the scale of the site, the listed features, and management measures. Understanding the portfolio of services derived from features within MPAs will improve planning and management, particularly in the context of making site specific or regional trade-offs over designation, or in understanding the benefits and impacts of setting conservation objectives and introducing measures to achieve them.

... In this environment, Mbwanda & Rohrbach (1989) questioned the increasing reliance on maize, pointing out that the more drought-tolerant ... Shumba (1991) argues that crops like sorghum and millets, which are more adapted to such marginal rainfall conditions, have received ...

... Since independence, resources have been concentrated on improving the performance ofagriculture in the ... The government's dilemma is that the efficiency of the commercial farms is important to future development, since Zimbabwe can ill afford to lose scarce foreign ...

This paper applies contingent valuation and decision tree analysis to investigate public preferences for water quality improvements, and in particular reduced eutrophication. Such preferences are important given that the development of EU water quality legislation is imposing significant costs on European economies. Results are reported of a survey undertaken of residents of Arhus County, Denmark for water quality improvements in the Randers Fjord. Results demonstrate strong public support for reduced eutrophication and identify key determinants of such support.

Understanding the cultural variation in public preference for marine species is a necessary pre-requisite if conservation objectives are to include societal preferences in addition to scientific considerations. We report the results of a contingent study undertaken at three case-study sites: Azores islands (Portugal), Gulf of Gdansk (Poland) and Isles of Scilly (UK). The study considered species richness of five specific marine taxa (mammals, birds, fish, invertebrates and algae) as proxies of marine biodiversity and the aim of analysis was to estimate from a multi-site perspective public’s willingness to pay (WTP) to avoid increased levels of species loss (reduction of species richness) for different marine taxa. Results, based on 1502 face-to-face interviews, showed that income, education and environmental awareness of the respondents were significant predictors of WTP for marine species conservation. Results also indicated that respondents in each of the European locations had different preferences for marine taxa. In the Azores, although mammals and fish were valued highly, small differences occurred in the WTP among different taxa. Respondents in the Isles of Scilly put a relatively low value on fish while algae and marine mammals were highly valued. In Gdansk, respondents defined a clear order of preference for marine mammals > fish > birds > invertebrates and algae. These findings suggested that cultural differences may be important drivers of valuation and undermines the commonly held premise that charismatic/likeable taxa consistently have a disproportionately strong influence on WTP for biodiversity conservation. We conclude that conservation policy must take account of cultural diversity alongside biological diversity.► We report the results of a contingent valuation study undertaken in three European countries. ► The study assessed the willingness to pay (WTP) of respondents to avoid loss in the number of marine species in five marine taxa. ► We examine how WTP varies with increased levels of species loss in five taxa in each of the three countries. ► Different European locations have different preferences for marine taxa. ► Cultural differences may be important drivers of valuation.

There is growing international recognition that high economic exposure, remoteness and isolation, and proneness to natural disasters have a debilitating effect on small economies, despite their relatively high per capita incomes. The purpose of this paper is to present a ...

This report is part of the Commonwealth Economic Paper Series and prepared by Dr Jonathan P Atkins, Dr Sonia Mazzi and Dr Christopher D Easter on behalf of the Economic Affairs Division of the Commonwealth Secretariat Commonwealth Secretariat Marlborough House Pall ...