ECONOMICS FOR ECOLOGY
Ibrahim Muhammad Kanya
Kano University Of Science And Technology Wudil Kano State, Nigeria
Definition of Economics: Economics can be defined as sciences which studies human behavior as a relationship
between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses.
By ends, it means human wants, desires or needs; these human wants are numerous relative to resources used in
satisfying them. By scarce the resources used to satisfying human wants which called means are scarce or not many.
Definition f Ecology: Ecology can be defined as the study of relationships of living things to another and to their
surroundings.
So by mere understanding of the two concepts above we can establish the Economics for Ecology as;
Definition of Economics for Ecology: Economics for Ecology can be defined as the sciences which studies human
behaviors and his surroundings (Environments).
Ecologists benefit from interactions with economists in at least two distinct ways:
1) Ecology has historically borrowed and adapted analytical modeling approaches from economics, and
2) Many of the environmental issue that ecologists work with are explicitly influenced by economics.
By bringing economists to work with ecologists and environmental scientists at NCEAS, we gain both a nalytical
expertise and knowledge of the economic factors that play an important role in conservation and management decisions.
Together ecologists and economists collaborate to better understand human interactions with ecosystems. Natural
environments provide important services to humans that may be lost when those systems are degraded. For example, coastal
wetlands provide critical habitat for animals that are harvested, reduce shoreline erosion, filter water before it enters the
ocean, and can buffer inland communities against storm surge. Ecologists and economists work together to identify and place
values on such services for society. Where multiple management and conservation actions are being considered, economic
expertise helps to identify the approach that achieves desired conservation and management goals while minimizing societal
costs. Alternatively, economics provides a decision-making framework within which to maximize conservation benefits of an
environmental policy given a fixed allocation of resources.
To catalyze greater collaboration among ecologists and economists, interdisciplinary teams of NCEAS researchers
have engaged both research communities, publishing in the economics literature and in the ecological literature
Satellite imagery has been used to make large-scale estimates of the relative contributions of marketed products and
ecosystem services to national economies, globally
A model has been developed to describe how declines of pollinators may affect markets for crops that requ ire insect
pollination
Alternative methods for extracting resources while minimizing environmental impacts can be evaluated with
simultaneous consideration of ecological and economic factors
The value of a single species performing an ecosystem service, such as pest control in agriculture , can be calculated
and compared to alternative methods of performing that service
Applying ecosystem-based management in the oceans presents new challenges in ecology, economics and governance
as the spatial scale at which we govern systems frequently does not match the spatial scale that is relevant to the organisms we
manage
This discourse between ecologists and economists has been invigorating for researchers at a fundamental level, as they
break new ground in their respective fields, and provides management and conservation professionals with critical tools for
decision making.
Economics has provided real solutions to pollution and environmental degradation. One problem is what is known as
the “tragedy of the commons.” In a 1968 issue of Science, Garrett Hardin, emeritus professor of biological sciences at the
University of California at Santa Barbara, wrote a seminal article arguing that a resource tends to be overexploited when
owned by the public and not private individuals. If no one owns a piece of grazing land, each herdsman has an incentive to
add another animal to the herd until the land is overgrazed. As a result, “Freedom in a common brings ruin to all.
Hence, the lack of property rights and market prices creates a “tragedy of the commons”–unnecessary pollution,
extinction of animals, destruction of forests, strip mining, and more. At first government favored regulation as a solution, but
economists have encouraged the establishment of clearly specified property rights and accompanying price signals in water,
fishing, and forestland, so that owners can preserve these resources in a balanced way.
In sum, free-market environmentalism has come a long way in showing how to replace the regulatory fist of command
with a greener invisible hand.