Brian Walker is an ecologist with a difference. He understands that the most important ecology is the ecology of managed ecosystems, and that of all interacting species in managed ecosystems, the most important is homo sapiens. In the paper that is the focus of this policy forum he has offered a vision of the problem of biodiversity conservation that strikes a chord with the economists who have been asked to comment on it. The driving forces behind biodiversity loss are interpreted in terms of perverse economic incentives, property rights and policy failures. This clearly rings true for economists who have worked on the biodiversity problem. But the paper goes beyond this. It addresses an aspect of the problem that economists have not yet confronted: the scale at which conservation efforts should be co-ordinated. More particularly, it addresses the disconnection between the appropriate ecological scale of biodiversity conservation and the institutions responsible for that conservation.
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