A market-based approach to manage endangered species interactions

Abstract

An economic activity interacts with an endangered species. The activity can be divided into mutually exclusive strata with different levels of interaction. Observing the activity in order to monitor interactions is costly. It may be desirable to manage the activity with a probability model which balances the benefit from the activity against the cost of the interaction with the endangered specie instead. The model gives rise to a permit scheme which fixates the risk of interaction over all strata and which uses the market mechanism to optimally allocate the activity between strata. The model can facilitate uncertainty in interaction rate estimates.