Interspecies Management and Land Use Strategies to Protect Endangered Species

Melstrom, Richard and Horan, Richard (2012): Interspecies Management and Land Use Strategies to Protect Endangered Species.

Abstract

We consider an ecosystem management problem where managers can use habitat creation and predator removal to conserve an endangered species. Predator removal may become particularly important in the face of habitat loss, and ecosystem management strategies that ignore the influence of habitat are likely to be inefficient. Using a bioeconomic model, we show that the marginal impact of prey habitat on predators is a key factor in determining the substitutability or complementarity of habitat and removal controls. Applying the model to the case of the endangered Atlantic-Gaspésie Woodland Caribou (rangifer tarandus caribou), we find that the first-best strategy involves extensive caribou habitat protection and a large predator cull initially, and then substituting habitat investments for predator removal as both populations begin to recover, suggesting that habitat protection and predator removal are effectively substitute controls.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Bioeconomics, optimal control, ecosystem management, endangered species
• Subjects: C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C6 - Mathematical Methods ; Programming Models ; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling > C61 - Optimization Techniques ; Programming Models ; Dynamic Analysis; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q2 - Renewable Resources and Conservation > Q24 - Land; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q5 - Environmental Economics > Q57 - Ecological Economics: Ecosystem Services ; Biodiversity Conservation ; Bioeconomics ; Industrial Ecology

References

Alexander, R.R. and D.W. Shields (2003). Using Land as a Control Variable in Density-Dependent Bioeconomic Models. Ecological Modeling 170: 193-201.

Bednar-Friedl, B., D.A. Behrens and M. Getzner (2012). Optimal Dynamic Control of Visitors and Endangered Species in a National Park. Environmental and Resource Economics 52: 1-22.

Brown, G., B. Berger and M. Ikiara (2005). A Predator-Prey Model with an Application to Lake Victoria Fisheries. Marine Resource Economics 20: 221-247.

Borgmann, K. L. and M. L. Morrison (2010). Factors Influencing the Frequency of Nest Parasitism by Brown-Headed Cowbirds in the Northern Sierra Nevada. Western North American Naturalist 70: 137-143.

Boisjoly, D, JP Ouellet, R Courtois (2010). Coyote Habitat Selection and Management Implications for the Gaspésie Caribou. Journal of Wildlife Management 74: 3-11.

Bulte, E.H. and R.D. Horan (2003). Habitat Conservation, Wildlife Extraction and Agri-cultural Expansion. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 45: 109-127.

Clark, C.W. Mathematical Bioeconomics. Wiley, New York, 2005.

Chaudhuri, K. (1986). A Bioeconomic Model of Harvesting a Multispecies Fishery. Ecological Modeling 32: 267-279.

Courtois, R. and J.P. Ouellet. Modeling the Impact of Moose and Wolfe Management on Persistence of Woodland Caribou. Alces 43(2007): 13-27.

Engeman, R.M., A. Duffiney, S. Braem, C. Olsen, B. Constantin, P. Small, J. Dunlap, and J.C. Griffin (2010). Dramatic and Immediate Improvements in Insular Nesting Success for Threatened Sea Turtles and Shorebirds Following Predator Management. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 395: 147–152.

Engeman, R.D., B.U. Constantin, K.S. Gruver and C. Rossi (2009). Managing Predators to Protect Endnagered Species and Promote Their Successful Reproduction. In: A.M. Columbus and L. Kuznetsov (Eds.), Endangered Species: New Research. Nova Science Publishers, Hauppauge, NY.

Hannesson, R. (1983). Optimal Harvesting of Ecologically Interdependent Fish Species. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 10: 329-345.

Ives, A.R. and D.L. Murray (1997). Can Sublethal Parasitism Destablize Predator-Prey Population Dynamics? A Model of Snowshow Hares, Predators and Parasites. Journal of Animal Ecology 66: 265-278.

Martín-Lopez, B., C. Montes and J. Benayas (2008). Economic Valuation of Biodiversity Conservation: the Meaning of Numbers. Conservation Biology 22: 624-635.

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA). Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Biodiversity Synthesis. World Resources Institute, Washington, DC, 2005.

Moon, D.C., J. Moon and A. Keagy (2010). Direct and Indirect Interactions. Nature Education Knowledge 1:9.

Mosnier, A., J.P. Ouellet, L. Sirois and N. Fournier (2003). Habitat Selection and Home-Range Dynamics of the Gaspé Caribou: A Hierarchical Analysis. Canadian Journal of Zoology 81: 1174-1184.

Mosnier, A, D Boisjoly, R Courtois, JP Ouellet (2008). Extensive Predator Space Use Can Limit the Efficacy of a Control Program. Journal of Wildlife Management 72:483-91.

Markovchick-Nicholls L., H.M. Regan, D.H. Deutschman, A. Widyanat, B. Martin, L. Noreke and T.A. Hunt (2008). Relationships between Human Disturbance and Wildlife Land Use in Urban Habitat Fragments. Conservation Biology 22: 99-109.

Cadieux, E. and J.P. Guay (2010). Pour Une Meilleure Protection du Caribou de la Gaspésie, Nature Quebéc.

Ouellet, J.-P., J. Ferron and L. Sirous (1996). Space and Habitat Use by the Threatened Gaspé Caribou in Southeastern Quebec. Canadian Journal of Zoology, 74: 1922-1933.

Parc National de la Gaspésie Journal (PNG). Parcs Québec. English version, 2011-2012.

Patterson, B.R. and F. Messier (2001). Social Organization and Space Use of Coyotes in Eastern Canada Relative to Prey Distribution and Abundance. Journal of Mammalogy 82: 463-477.

Ragozin, D.L., and G. Brown, Jr (1985). Harvest Policies and Nonmarket Valuation in a Predator-Prey System. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 12:155-68.

Recovery Plan, Gaspésie Woodland Caribou. Ministère des Resources Naturelles et de la Faune, Secteur Faune Québec, 2006.

Riley, SPD, J. Hadidian, DA Manski (1998). Population Density, Survival, and Rabies in Raccoons in an Urban National Park. Canadian Journal of Zoology 76: 1153-1164.

Rogers, L.L. and A.W. Allen. Habitat Suitability Index Models: Black Bear, Upper Great Lakes Region. U.S. Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, Biological Report 82(10.144), 1987.

Sanchirico, J.N. and M. Springborn (2011). How to Get There from Here: Ecological and Economic Dynamics of Ecosystem Service Provision. Environmental and Resource Economics 48: 1-25.

Scott, J.M., D.D. Goble, J.A. Wiens, D.S. Wilcove, M. Bean and T. Male (2005). Recovery of Imperiled Species Under the Endangered Species Act: The Need for a New Approach. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 3: 383-389.

Scott, J.M., D.D. Goble, A.M. Haines, J.A. Wiens, and M.C. Neel (2010). Conservation-Reliant Species and the Future of Conservation. Conservation Letters 3: 91-97.

Smith, R.H, D. J. Neff and N.J. Woolsey (1986). Pronghorn Response to Coyote Control: A Benefit: Cost Analysis. Wildlife Society Bulletin 14: 226-231.

Sokol-Hessner, L. and O.J. Schmitz (2002). Aggregate Effects of Multiple Predator Species on a Shared Prey. Ecology 83: 2367-2372.

St. Laurent, M.H., J.P. Ouellt, A. Mosnier, D. Boisjoly and R. Courtois (2009). Le Parc National de la Gaspésie est-il un Outil de Conservation Efficace pour Maintenir une Population Menacée de Caribou. Le Naturaliste Canadien, 133: 6-14.

Stone, I, J. P. Ouellet, L. Siroisa, M. J. Arseneaua, M. H. St-Lauren (2008). Impacts of Silvicultural Treatments on Arboreal Lchen Biomass in Balsam Fir Stands on Québec's Gaspé Peninsula: Implications for a Relict Caribou Herd. Forest Ecology and Management 255: 2733-2742.

Ströbele, W.J, and H. Wacker (1995). The Economics of Harvesting Predator-Prey Systems. Journal of Economics 61: 65-81.

Swallow, S.K. (1990). Depletion of the Environmental Basis for Renewable Resources: The Economics of Interdependent Renewable and Nonrenewable Resources. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 19: 281-296.

Tanner, J.T., The Stability and the Intrinsic Growth Rates of Prey and Predator Populations (1975). Ecology 56: 855-867.

Tschirhart, J. (2009). Integrated Ecological-Economic Models. Annual Review of Resource Economics 1: 381-407.

Wilcove, D.S, D. Rothstein, J. Dubow, A. Phillips and E. Losos (1998). Quantifying Threats to Imperiled Species in the United States. Bioscience 48: 106-115.

Wolfram Research, Inc., Mathematica 7.0, Champaign, IL, 2008.