Joint Determination to Assess the Economic Importance of Ecosystem Services *

Although ecosystems provide myriad services to economies, only one service is considered in most renewable-resource models. The bioeconomic model introduced here admits a second service, and more importantly it accounts for how the two services are impacted by interactions within a thirteen species ecosystem and interactions within a regional economy. Endangered Steller sea lion recovery measures via alternative pollock quotas are shown to cause altered levels of all ecosystem populations, and altered levels of all economic variables. While non-use values associated with the ecosystem (e.g., existence values) are not considered, all species matter for the economy because they are all used indirectly as support for ecosystem services. Regional welfare losses from reduced quotas are mediated by increased provision of ecosystem services.