Valuing biodiversity for use in pharmaceutical research

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Simpson, RD; Sedjo, RA; Reid, JW
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-3808
• DOI: 10.1086/262021
• 发表日期: 1996
• 页码: 163-185
• 关键词: diversity

摘要

''Biodiversity prospecting'' has been touted as a mechanism for both discovering new pharmaceutical products and saving endangered ecosystems. It is unclear what values may arise from such activities, however. Evidence from transactions is incomplete and existing theoretical models are flawed. We calculate an upper bound on the value of the ''marginal species.'' Even under favorable assumptions this bound is modest. Slightly modified assumptions lead to drastically lower estimates. We extend our findings to the value of the marginal hectare of habitat and find that the incentives for habitat conservation generated by private pharmaceutical research are also, at best, very modest.