Wildlife, biodiversity and trade

Abstract

This article develops a model of wild-resource exploitation that includes both the standard bioeconomic properties of growth and harvesting and a species-area relationship linked to habitat conversion. The model is developed for both a closed and an open economy. In the closed-economy model the characteristics of the long-run equilibrium are analysed in three versions of the model: the basic bioeconomic model, the inclusion of habitat conversion and the addition of biodiversity value. In the case of the open-economy model, we also examine the potential effects of trade interventions on the optimal exploitation of species and habitat conversion in the long run. The results confirm that the inclusion of habitat conversion as well as biodiversity value in a model of wild-resource exploitation yields significantly different outcomes than a basic bioeconomic model.