The paper presents the results from a stated preference study to address issues concerning the potential for using flag-ship species, such as the Giant Panda, to purchase the property rights for the conservation of natural habitat. The study finds, first, that there is clear WTP for acquiring the property rights for panda habitat. The nature of this demand is found both convincing and logically...

Conservation needs are often in direct competition with other forms of land-use, and therefore protection of biodiversity must be cost-efficient. While common reserve selection algorithms address this problem, quantitative planning tools often suggest an optimal set of sites that is not necessarily convenient for practical conservation. Besides cost-effective solutions we require flexibility if...

The effects of flooding harvested rice fields on waterbird communities were studied during winter. Variation in the number of waterbird species, overall densities of all waterbirds, wading birds, waterfowl, and shorebirds, and a measure of conservation value that weighted species according to their relative abundance and population trends were examined. Each variable was tested for differences ...

We study the parabolic approximation of a multidimensional scalar conservation law with initial and boundary conditions. We prove that the rate of convergence of the viscous approximation to the weak entropy solution is of order η, where η is the size of the artificial viscosity. We use a kinetic formulation and kinetic techniques for initial-boundary value problems developed by the last two au...

Exposure to nature yields a wide range of mental health benefits. Improvements in mental health have substantial economic value, through: reduced mental healthcare costs; improved workplace productivity; and reduced costs of antisocial behavior, both public, and private. These economic gains represent an unquantified ecosystem service attributable to conservation. Since most individual people, ...