The National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center's video: Conservation Return on Investment

In this lecture, Dr. Jim Boyd presents a real-world example of how economics can be used to improve decision-making. He presents a case study in which economic approaches are used to inform investments in conservation to maximize the environmental outcomes. In the simplified case, the goal is to protect a fixed number of species the cheapest way possible or, on the flip side, ask how to maximize the number of species protected on a fixed budget. He discusses the need for considering the opportunity costs, focusing on the marginal impact of a protection decision relative to alternatives, the probability the land in question may be developed if it is not conserved, the “leakage” effect on development nearby that protection could cause, and the need for a counterfactual. He closes by considering some limitations of such approaches, particularly in association with tools that have been developed to help communities consider return-on-investment decisions. @The National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center