TY - GEN A1 - Baumgärtner, Stefan A1 - Quaas, Martin F. T1 - The Private and Public Insurance Value of Conservative Biodiversity Management N2 - Abstract. The ecological literature suggests that biodiversity reduces the variance of ecosystem services. Thus, conservative biodiversity management has an insurance value to risk-averse users of ecosystem services. We analyze a conceptual ecological-economic model in which such management measures generate a private benefit and, via ecosystem processes at higher hierarchical levels, a positive externality on other ecosystem users. We find that ecosystem management and environmental policy depend on the extent of uncertainty and risk-aversion as follows: (i) Individual effort to improve ecosystem quality unambiguously increases. The free-rider problem may decrease or increase, depending on the characteristics of the ecosystem and its management; in particular, (ii) the size of the externality may decrease or increase, depending on how individual and aggregate management effort influence biodiversity; and (iii) the welfare loss due to free-riding may decrease or increase, depending on how biodiversity influences ecosystem service provision. KW - Ökosystem KW - Versicherung KW - Haftpflichtrisiko KW - Öffentliches Gut KW - biodiversity KW - ecosystem management KW - free-riding KW - insurance KW - public good Y1 - 2006 UR - http://pub-data.leuphana.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/444 ER -